The trail ahead for this whole new industry continues to be cleared.

Shares of Archer Aviation (ACHR 11.04%) rekindled their choppy recovery rally today, up 11.7% as of 2:33 p.m. ET. While the reason for the big move doesn’t directly translate into real revenue or profit progress, it certainly makes both much more likely than was first anticipated.

An executive order further clears a trail

Credit President Donald Trump, mostly. With an executive order signed late Friday, the U.S. president has hastened the advent of the United States’ electric air taxi industry that will provide personal mobility from one specific inner-city location to another. The order explicitly requests that the Secretary of Transportation begin laying the groundwork for the development of an official eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) pilot program that includes the participation of at least one “private sector partner with demonstrated experience in eVTOL aircraft development, manufacturing, and operations.”

Image source: Getty Images.

Archer Aviation qualifies. Its so-called Midnight aircraft capable of flying like an airplane but taking off and landing like a helicopter is not only fully electrically powered, but has already made several hundred successful test flights. Moreover, the company itself is already laying the groundwork for commercial operations in New York and Los Angeles. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy could readily meet President Trump’s accelerated timeline goals using Archer’s work to date.

Bolstering the tailwind already blowing

There’s no assurance that Archer Aviation will be one of the private sector outfits brought into this regulatory fold, of course. There are others that qualify, like Joby Aviation.

There’s also no reason to suspect that only one private operator will become involved in this official test initiative though. And, given that Archer is developing a version of its Midnight aircraft specifically for the U.S. Air Force, its technology also already arguably has the U.S. government’s unofficial approval. And, whether or not Archer is selected for involvement with the Secretary of Transportation’s new mandate, there’s more than ample opportunity for more than one air taxi service provider in the U.S. alone, not to mention overseas. Industry research outfit Global Market Insights believes the world’s air taxi market is poised to grow at an average annualized pace of more than 20% per year through 2032, led by North America.

More important to interested investors, Trump’s executive order creates more room and reason for Archer Aviation stock to continue rallying from here. Although the start-up is still years away from profitable operations — and as such still poses tremendous risk to its shareholders — the potential upside is commensurate with this risk.

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NEW YORK (AP) — National Public Radio and three of its local stations sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday, arguing that his executive order cutting funding to the 246-station network violates their free speech and relies on an authority that he does not have.

Earlier this month, Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to cease funding for NPR and PBS, either directly or indirectly. The president and his supporters argue their news reporting promotes liberal bias and shouldn’t be supported by taxpayers.

Retaliation is Trump’s plain purpose, the lawsuit argues. It was filed in federal court in Washington by NPR and three Colorado entities — Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KUTE, Inc., chosen to show the system’s diversity in urban and rural areas.

“By basing its directives on the substance of NPR’s programming, the executive order seeks to force NPR to adapt its journalistic standards and editorial choices to the preferences of the government if it is to continue to receive federal funding,” Katherine Maher, NPR’s CEO, said Tuesday.

Lawsuit says Trump is targeting a private nonprofit corporation

The lawsuit alleges that Trump is acting to contravene the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit corporation set up to distribute federal funding to NPR and PBS, which is intended to insulate the system from political interference. Congress has appropriated $535 million yearly to CPB for 2025, 2026 and 2027.

In response to the lawsuit, White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said that CPB “is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime,” so Trump was exercising his authority under the law. “The president was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective,” Fields said.

Trump hasn’t hidden his feelings about NPR, calling it a “liberal disinformation machine” in an April social media post.

The court fight seemed preordained, given that the heads of NPR and PBS both reacted to Trump’s move earlier this month with statements that they believed it was illegal. The absence of PBS from Tuesday’s filing indicates the two systems will challenge this separately; PBS has not yet gone to court, but is likely to soon.

“PBS is considering every option, including taking legal action, to allow our organization to continue to provide essential programming and services to member stations and all Americans,” PBS spokesman Jeremy Gaines said Tuesday.

Trump is in other legal disputes with news organizations

The president’s attempts to dismantle government-run news sources like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have also sparked court fights.

The administration has battled with the press on several fronts. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating ABC, CBS and NBC News. The Associated Press also went to court after the administration restricted access to certain events in response to the organization’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico as Trump decreed.

The lawsuit says 11% of Aspen Public Radio’s budget is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It is 6% for the Colorado Public Radio, a network of 19 stations, and 19% of KUTE’s budget. That station was founded in 1976 by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.

NPR notes that the order attempts to prohibit individual stations in NPR’s system from using any federal money to buy NPR programming, like “All Things Considered,” the most listened-to afternoon radio news program in the country, its early counterpart “Morning Edition” and cultural programming like the Tiny Desk concerts.

The order “directly interferes with editorial independence by requiring them to seek programming elsewhere,” the lawsuit said.

NPR says it also provides infrastructure services to hundreds of public radio stations and without it, their coverage area would shrink. It also provides the backbone for emergency alert systems across the country.

“Public broadcasting is an irreplaceable foundation of American civic life,” Maher said. “At its best, it reflects our nation back to itself in all our complexity, contradictions and commonalities and connects our communities across differences and divides.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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