U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to cancel licenses of local broadcast networks if their content is critical of him.
Trump’s remarks on the networks came soon after ABC (NYSE:DIS) suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show indefinitely over his remarks on the death of Charlie Kirk, a pro-Trump political activist.
“That’s something that should be talked about for licensing, too. When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” Trump said while speaking to reporters on Air Force One. “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat party.”
“I read someplace that the networks were 97% against me again; I get 97% negative. And yet I won it easily. I won all seven swing states, the popular vote, whatever. They’re 97% against. They give me totally bad publicity, the press,” Trump told reporters.
“I would 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 have to see,” Trump said.
Earlier in the day, FCC Chair Carr backed ABC’s decision to pull Kimmel’s show off the air and suggested that his regulatory agency could take action against TV broadcasters and said the networks have an “obligation to operate in the public interest.”
In June, CBS said it will completely retire The Late Show after its host, Stephen Colbert, blasted Paramount’s $16M settlement with Trump over a Kamala Harris interview, calling it “a big fat bribe.”
Earlier this week, Trump filed a $15B defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times (NYT), accusing the paper of serving as a “virtual mouthpiece” for the Democrats.
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