A rumor that circulated online in May 2025 claimed mean-spirited "Sesame Street" characters parodying Donald Trump in past decades were what prompted the U.S. president to eliminate federal funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which broadcasts the children's educational TV program. Trump has sought to end the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's (CPB) federal funding for PBS since 2017, during his first term in office.
As one of many examples, on May 7, an X user posted (archived) a video of Oscar-winning actor Joe Pesci portraying a real estate tycoon named Ronald Grump — one of four "Sesame Street" characters parodying Trump over the years. The post displayed over 1.5 million views.
The clip, showing a watermark from a TikTok post (archived), depicted Grump informing Elmo and some of the human cast members of his plans to replace 123 Sesame Street with a tall building named Grump Tower, a name parodying the real-life Trump Tower. The post read, "This episode of 'Sesame Street' back in 1988 is why Trump is targeting PBS and Sesame Street so much! The episode was Ronald Grump intends to raze Sesame Street and redevelop it! Does this sound familiar because that's what he does everywhere!"
Other users made similar claims about Trump holding a "grudge" over parodic portrayals, for example on Facebook, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube.
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google, as well as newspaper archives hosted by Newspapers.com, turned up no evidence to confirm the rumor that Trump targeted PBS funding cuts specifically, or in part, due to the parodic portrayals. Initial searches also failed to produce any records of Trump ever publicly acknowledging the character's existence.
A spokesperson for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces "Sesame Street," told Snopes by email, "Ronald Grump hasn't appeared in nearly 20 years, long before President Trump entered office. Sesame Workshop is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, and throughout our 55-year history 'Sesame Street' has parodied countless pop culture icons, television shows, and notable personalities in service of engaging families to further our educational mission to help children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder."
The White House didn't respond by press time to an email inquiring whether Trump was aware of the parodic portrayals, whether he had ever made public statements about it and whether there was any basis to the claim he targeted PBS due to the Grump character. The CPB declined to comment.
Snopes previously reported about the four "Sesame Street" characters parodying Trump in decades past. Pesci's Ronald Grump appeared not in 1988 as claimed in the above X post but rather during the May 18, 1994, ABC prime-time special, "Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever." According to Fandom.com's Muppet Wiki, the story ends with Grump abandoning his building plans upon realizing Oscar the Grouch's trash can resides on city property. The other three parodic characters, all Muppets, were named Donald Trump Muppet, Ronald Grump and Donald Grump.
One of the more prominent posts promoting the rumor, a May 3 Facebook reel (archived) mentioning the Grump character, received over 3.2 million views and featured a song about Grump being a grouch, much like Oscar the Grouch, and comparing his assets to garbage. The video caption displayed a laughing emoji and read, "This is why Tr*mp hates 'Sesame Street.'" The user posting the clip added, "Is this why he wants to end PBS?"
Background on the Trump/'Sesame Street' rumor
Users shared and discussed this rumor in the days after Trump signed an executive order on May 1 aiming to slash federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS. The order directed the CPB to "cease direct funding to NPR and PBS," specifically claiming the two organizations produced "biased" programming.
A fact sheet (archived) accompanying Trump's order claimed NPR and PBS "fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars," for example accusing PBS of favoring both the Democratic Party and transgender issues. The fact sheet also made specific mention of a June 2020 CNN/"Sesame Street" racism town hall — produced days following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd — claiming the program presented a "one-sided narrative to 'address racism' amid the Black Lives Matter riots."
The Associated Press reported that federal courts pushed back against similar moves by Trump's administration to dismantle other organizations, with those courts asserting the White House may have overstepped its bounds in holding back funds appropriated by Congress.
Days after Trump's executive order, on May 6, CPB announced the Department of Education's decision to terminate the Ready to Learn grant, which historically helped to fund "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow" and other well-known shows. The New York Times reported the cancellation of the grant program resulted in a loss of $23 million for children's educational shows and games. The article also noted the first Trump administration awarded the initial installment of the grant in 2020.
As for financial specifics, a PBS fact sheet (archived) featured data showing federal funding represented about 15% of its annual revenue. A CPB document (archived) also added, "PBS is funded principally by member station dues, distribution revenue and underwriting support. CPB provides funding to PBS for some of the national programming it distributes and for the infrastructure that distributes content and emergency alerts from PBS to public television stations."
The financials page (archived) on Sesame Workshop's website said 50% of its revenue derived from distribution fees and royalties, without offering further details.
For further reading, a previous fact check examined the time when Mississippi officials refused to broadcast "Sesame Street" in 1970 due to its multiracial human cast members.