President Trump on Thursday offered his full support to Brendan Carr, the FCC chairman, and warned that broadcasters who criticize him could lose their licenses.
Trump was asked about “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” which was indefinitely suspended on Wednesday. He argued that late-night shows are uniformly critical of him, saying “they haven’t had a conservative on in years.”
“When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” he said. “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the president also complained that 97% of broadcast news coverage is “against me.”
“They give me only bad press,” he said. “They’re getting a license. I think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy. So we’ll see.”
Carr on Wednesday threatened to take action against local affiliates in response to Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killer. Kimmel said on his ABC show on Monday that the “MAGA gang” was “trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
The comment was picked up in conservative media and generated significant controversy on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Within hours of Carr’s remarks, Nexstar and Sinclair said they would not broadcast Kimmel’s show, and ABC announced that it was pulling the show until further notice.
Trump celebrated when Stephen Colbert’s CBS show was canceled in July. At the time, he said “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”
On the plane, Trump was asked who should replace Kimmel.
“Anybody could replace him. He had no talent,” he said. “More importantly than talent, because a lot of people have no talent and they get ratings, but he had no ratings. His ratings were worse than Colbert, I think. They got rid of Colbert, which was a good thing to do.”
Trump often threatened to take broadcasters’ licenses during the 2024 campaign.
“CBS gets a license and the license is based on honesty,” he said at a campaign stop in Aurora, Colo., last October. “I think they have to take their license away.”
