NPR
National Public Radio's Carl Kasell delivers one of his last newscasts during the Morning Edition program at NPR in Washington, D.C., Dec. 30, 2009. NPR has been running since 1970, but many are worried about its future under President Donald Trump. Getty Images

More people are listening to National Public Radio than ever before, NPR announced Wednesday. In fall 2016, the total weekly listeners reached 37.5 million — 4 million more than fall 2015, and the most in its nearly 50-year history.

That’s good news for public radio lovers, and it comes at a time when they need good news. In President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2018, which was released Thursday, the president was looking to shave off money from the federal budget to make room for a $54 billion increase in defense funding. And one potential item on the chopping block was the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides federal funding to NPR.

Read: Trump Budget 2018 Proposal: Military Wins, Environment Loses

Trump has seen support for the move on social media too, with the likes of Dan Gainor, an administrator at the Media Research Center, tweeting “#DefundNPR.”

As any NPR fan knows, public radio doesn’t just get its money from the federal government. In fact, only about 9 percent came from the CPB in fiscal year 2015. The rest came from donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and universities, among a few other sources.

NPR Funding
Public radio station revenues for Fiscal Year 2015 Center For Public Broadcasting

Read: What’s Next For Bernie Sanders? Read His Response To Donald Trump's ‘Morally Obscene’ Budget

Cutting the $445 million budget for the CPB probably wouldn’t stop NPR from operating. But other agencies that depend more heavily on federal funding would suffer, and some might be privatized or killed off altogether as a consequence.

Other agencies that are facing elimination from the Trump Administration included the Corporation for National & Community Service (AmeriCorps); the Legal Services Corporation — which provides legal aid for the poor; the Institute for Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which only received $4 million from the budget in fiscal year 2016.

The $1.15 trillion budget proposed by Trump would also drastically slash funding to the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department. Congress must now approve the budget, although several legislators have already criticized the plan, including some reluctant Republicans.