Trump Threatens Licenses of TV Stations That Criticize Him
US President Donald Trump
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said US broadcast networks should face scrutiny over their licenses if they’re too critical of him, in what amounts to his furthest-reaching threat to media freedoms.
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“When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday. “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
The president was defending ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s show indefinitely over the late-night host’s remarks about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump’s latest comments came days after he filed a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times. The president and his Republican allies have long complained that America’s mainstream media is biased against conservatives. Trump has repeatedly called for CBS, ABC and NBC to get rid of late night comedy hosts who are frequently critical of his administration.
On Wednesday, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network said it is taking off the air indefinitely following a backlash from conservatives over the late-night host’s comments about Kirk. Earlier Thursday, Trump backed ABC’s decision to remove Kimmel amid pressure from network affiliates who had said they were pulling the show.
“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said Thursday during his press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
WATCH: President Donald Trump says Disney fired talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for a “lack of talent” and bad ratings. Source: Bloomberg
Kimmel’s comments inflamed many conservative commentators and brought a rebuke from members of the Trump administration. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr told podcast host Benny Johnson that he had a strong case to punish Kimmel, ABC and Disney. The FCC grants licenses to broadcasters such as ABC and its affiliates.
Trump’s comments represent a startling break with the nation’s long-standing traditions of freedom of speech and of the press enshrined in the US Constitution.
Congressional Republicans have either been silent on these matters or backed the president. On Thursday, several key GOP lawmakers said the decision to take Kimmel off the air was the media ABC’s decision — not the FCC’s.
Kimmel on Monday accused Republicans of using Kirk’s death to criticize their opponents. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” he said.
The suspension started with Wednesday’s broadcast, Disney said in a statement. The company announced the decision minutes after Nexstar Media Group Inc., which owns dozens of ABC TV affiliates, said it would pull the show indefinitely from its stations over remarks it cast as “offensive and insensitive.”
Trump and Vice President JD Vance have blamed Kirk’s killing on inflammatory leftist rhetoric and vowed to investigate left-leaning organizations in response. Individuals accused of celebrating his death or offering negative viewpoints of Kirk — a polarizing figure who took staunchly conservative stances on issues such as race and gender — have faced online vitriol and in some cases lost their jobs.
The moves have also come amid a broader assault by Trump on media organizations whose coverage he has been unhappy with. Last year, ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump over comments made by host George Stephanopoulos. The president this week sued the New York Times Co. for $15 billion, claiming it has an agenda against him.
Those incidents have spurred worries among Trump critics about free speech in the US even as conservatives have assailed European leaders over efforts to rein in violent or hateful rhetoric, which they say unfairly target right-leaning views.
Starmer, in particular, has been the target of furious criticism from Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, and other leaders of the populist right over British efforts to restrict speech including a wave of arrests after anti-immigrant riots last year. Critics have zeroed-in on Britain’s Online Safety Act, which was passed under the previous Conservative government in 2023, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage criticizing the law during an appearance before the US House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
“This country’s had free speech for a very, very long time,” Starmer said Thursday during the press conference. “It is part of who we are as a country, and it is the values that we fought for. We fought for it during the Second World War, alongside each other. So we need no reminding of the importance of free speech in this country.”
Earlier this week, police in the UK arrested four men on suspicion of “malicious communications” after an image of Trump and the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was projected onto Windsor Castle to protest the US president’s visit.
–With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron, Michelle Jamrisko and Ben Holland.
(Updates with context on media and Trump administration in fourth paragraph)
