Donald Trump‘s war on critics has long blurred the line between political power and personal vendetta. However, his latest attempt to silence late-night host Jimmy Kimmel pushes that abuse into dangerous new territory.
After Kimmel was abruptly fired for presenting opinions that go against the far-right narrative, FCC head Brendan Carr also joined in the bullying and threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of any media channel that airs Kimmel’s content. Weighing in on the controversy, former President Barack Obama took to X with a pointed reminder that Trump isn’t just feuding with a comedian, he’s undermining the very First Amendment he once swore to uphold.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” he wrote.
The Kimmel incident came not even a day after the video of the MAGA leader threatening an Australian reporter over his “bad tone” went viral. But the verdict is clear: the administration is no longer hiding its comfort with weaponizing government power to punish dissent. This isn’t governance but a machinery of authoritarianism, bending the First Amendment to serve Trump’s personal rule over what was once a functioning democracy.
Obama followed his post with another staunch criticism of the dirty game going on in the White House, linking it to the recent firing of Karen Attiah from The Washington Post. He said,
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
While some argued that ABC made the call to fire Kimmel on their own discretion, what the FCC did is beyond any defence. According to its own Consumer Guide, the commission is explicitly barred from employing censorship or interfering with the free speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment. By that standard, Chairman Carr’s threat was not just heavy-handed but flat-out unconstitutional.
Media outlets, however, continue to comply with such pressure for one reason: Carr has the full weight of Donald Trump behind him. And Trump has shown no hesitation in twisting regulatory power to serve his personal grudges. Kimmel’s offhand jab at the “MAGA gang” and Charlie Kirk hardly rise to the level of disinformation or incitement. Punishing him for it is not oversight, but clearly a political retribution.
Obama’s advice to the media companies to start standing up against the Trump administration’s tyranny needs to be taken seriously, or free speech and freedom of the press might only be heard of in the history books of the great United States.
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