Networks whose programming is largely anti-Trump should have their government-approved broadcasting license “taken away,” President Trump suggested, in comments that alarmed free expression advocates.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the president complained that networks air shows featuring coverage and commentary about him that was almost entirely negative, which meant the Federal Communications Commission could pull their licenses.
“All they do is hit Trump,” the president said. “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”
As the FCC’s website notes, the commission does not license the large corporate broadcast networks like ABC or NBC, but rather the individual stations that carry their content locally. The commission also does not involve itself in content decisions.
“Broadcasters – not the FCC or any other government agency – are responsible for selecting the material they air,” according to the commission site. “The First Amendment and the Communications Act expressly prohibit the Commission from censoring broadcast matter. Our role in overseeing program content is very limited.”
As Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed FCC chair, wrote in a post on social media in 2019, “The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the ‘public interest.’”
Trump’s view of the process represents a dramatic government overreach into free speech, according to some observers.
“This is probably the most dictatory statement a president has ever uttered,” political commentator Zaid Jilani wrote on X.
Sarah McLaughlin, a senior scholar at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy group, wrote on BlueSky that Trump’s comments suggest “the president of the United States believes he has the right and the authority to use the firepower of the federal government to crush people who say things about him that he does not like.”
“President Trump is right: late night low-ratings losers are nothing more than an arm of the Democrat party,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Independent in a statement, when asked if the president’s views violate free speech rights. “It’s no wonder they’re so unpopular!”
The Independent has contacted the FCC for comment.
Trump’s comments about the networks come as the administration has faced criticism for its perceived influence in the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night TV show, after the comedian generated controversy for comments about the recent Charlie Kirk assassination.
ABC yanked the show hours after the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, said of the controversy, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” and suggested the government might take action against the company.
The president also told an ABC reporter on Wednesday that, as part of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s stated intention to prosecute “hate speech,” a category of expression protected by the First Amendment, federal officials would “go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly.”
Speech advocates and comedians alike have criticized the decision to pull Kimmel off the air.
“We all see where this is going,” former late-night host David Letterman said on a panel at The Atlantic Festival on Thursday. “It’s managed media, and it’s no good, it’s silly, it ridiculous, and you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or you’re trying to suck up to an authoritarian, criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
The president has long fumed against against the mainstream media, whom he has regularly referred to as the “enemy of the people,” and he hit The New York Times on Monday with a $15 billion defamation suit following unflattering recent coverage.
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