‘They’re not allowed to do that’: Trump threatens TV licences over coverage of him

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Washington: US President Donald Trump suggested TV networks could lose their broadcasting licences over criticism of him on late-night talk shows, as Democrats announced an investigation into the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and demanded Trump’s hand-picked broadcasting regulator resign.

Television network ABC announced it was taking Kimmel off the air indefinitely amid backlash from local stations, and pressure from Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, over comments the comedian made about the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk.

Donald Trump on Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC show in 2015 while he was running to be the Republican candidate for president.

The decision has sparked an outcry from free speech advocates, Hollywood unions and the Democrats, who accused Carr of a “corrupt abuse of power” by coercing ABC to appease Trump. The president’s distaste for Kimmel and other late-night hosts is well known.

Flying home from a state visit to the United Kingdom, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Carr would decide whether networks should have their licences revoked over their coverage of the president.

“When you have a network, and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do,” Trump said. “I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years. All they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed, they’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party.”

Trump claimed the networks overwhelmingly ran negative content about him, despite his emphatic win in the 2024 election.

US President Donald Trump said Jimmy Kimmel was “fired” for bad ratings and because he had “no talent”.

“They give me only bad press. They’re getting a licence. I would think maybe their licence should be taken away. It’ll be up to Brendan Carr … we’ll have to see.”

Trump repeated his claim that Kimmel was suspended not due to political interference but because he had bad ratings and no talent.

While late-night TV talk shows face declining ratings due to competition from streaming services, Kimmel was second in his timeslot behind Stephen Colbert in the second quarter of 2025, according to LateNighter, and won the timeslot in the important 18-to-49 demographic.

Kimmel has not commented publicly. In his most recent post on the social network BlueSky, a week ago, he sent love to Kirk’s family and said: “Can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?”

But on his Monday night show, Kimmel incorrectly implied Kirk’s accused assassin was “one of them”, that being the MAGA movement, and said Trump’s allies were using the murder to “score political points”.

TV station owners Sinclair and Nexstar said these remarks were offensive and insensitive, and announced they would “pre-empt”, or replace, his program with something else. ABC then announced a broader suspension.

The Federal Communication Act requires licensed broadcasters to act in the public interest, though a “fairness doctrine” was repealed in 1987.

Carr told cable network CNBC on Thursday that he was going to reinvigorate the FCC’s enforcement of public interest. “Broadcast TV is different,” he said.

“If you have a broadcast TV licence, that means you have something that very few people have, and you’re excluding other people from having access to that valuable public resource, and it comes with an obligation to serve the public interest.”

Meanwhile in Washington, Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, announced an investigation into attempts to censor criticism of Trump, while party leaders vowed to use congressional power to uncover the truth. “This will not be forgotten,” they said in a statement.

Under scrutiny will be the particulars of proposed media mergers involving the two ABC affiliates that raised concerns about Kimmel. Nexstar and Sinclair want to acquire a rival TV station owner, TEGNA, in deals worth billions that would have to be approved by Carr’s FCC.

Hours before ABC yanked Kimmel’s show, Carr gave an interview to right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson and warned: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way … these companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action on Kimmel [or] there’s actions we can take on licensed broadcasters.”

The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has sparked a furore over political violence and free speech.

Carr also urged station owners to push back on companies such as Disney, which owns ABC, and tell them “we’re not going to run Kimmel any more” – which is what occurred.

Hollywood has been rocked by the decision. Comedian, writer and actor Marc Maron, who appeared regularly on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien’s shows, said it was a deciding moment for freedom of speech and called on free speech proponents to act now, lest they be next.

“This is government censorship,” he said. “This isn’t people getting cancelled because of a cultural pile-on. This is the United States government silencing voices that they disagree with.”

Actor Ben Stiller said Kimmel’s ousting “isn’t right”, while actress Jean Smart said she was horrified. “People seem to only want to protect free speech when it suits THEIR agenda,” Smart wrote on Instagram. “What is happening to our country?”

Former president Barack Obama also got involved, calling on media owners to stand up to Trump’s bullying.

“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 said.

“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent – and media companies needed to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”

Various Hollywood unions backed Kimmel. “What we have signed on to – painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree,” the Writers Guild of America west and east divisions said in a joint statement.

“Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.”

SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, said Kimmel’s suspension was “the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms”.

with Reuters