Maine Public Broadcasting Network could lose 12% of its funding following an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS,” the nation’s primary public broadcasters.

President Donald Trump signed the order late Thursday, alleging bias in the programming.

Aside from pulling funding, the order instructs the corporation and other federal agencies to root out indirect sources of public financing for the new organizations.

In a social media post announcing the signing, the White House said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

Rick Schneider, president and CEO of Maine Public, the statewide network for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, said the network would lose more than $2 million of its roughly $18 million budget.

“It is the latest step in an attack on the free press in this country,” he said, but “this is not a done deal by any means, (and) Maine Public is going to be there for Mainers, and we’re focused on our work today and into the future.”

The $2.3 million doesn’t fund a specific program. Instead, according to Schneider, it helps “ensure universal free access to public broadcasting.”

Schneider said the money goes to basic infrastructure, while programming is paid for by private fundraising.

Maine Public can likely survive without 12% of its funding, though it is unclear whether it would cut expenses, raise more money, adjust the business model or work out a combination of all three. The organization has about 120 employees.

Schneider said he’s more concerned about the future of small, local stations that rely on federal dollars for 50% or more of their funding. PBS and NPR get membership dues from stations that want to access their programming.

“We need a strong national system in order to create PBS and NPR programming,” Schneider said.  “Would Maine Public evolve? That’s entirely possible. But would Maine Public have the strong PBS and NPR programs that people rely on from us in addition to our own Maine services?”

That’s less clear.

“That’s why this is so essential,” he said.

But Schneider isn’t too concerned yet.

“People see the executive order and the headlines and think it’s over for public broadcasting,” he said. “But the truth is that it’s very hard to see any legal authority to do this.”

Federal funding for public media flows through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an independent nonprofit created and funded by Congress to operate separately from the federal government. Congress allocated it about half a billion dollars for the current fiscal year.

On Friday, the nonprofit dismissed the validity of the executive order.

“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Patricia Harrison, president and CEO, said in a written statement. The statute passed by Congress “expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over (CPB) or any of its grantees or contractors.”

“This looks bad, but there’s a very real question whether this means anything or is going to stand,” Schneider added.

NPR has vowed to challenge the executive order “using all means available.”

“We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,” the news organization said in a statement. “The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities.”