Donald Trump has suggested US TV networks that criticise him should have their broadcast licences ‘taken away’.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew home from his state visit to the UK, the President said: ‘I read someplace that the networks were 97 per cent against me.
‘And if they’re 97 per cent against and they give me only bad publicity, and they’re getting a licence, I would think maybe their licence should be taken away.’
It comes after late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air for comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the President’s reaction to his death.
Mr Trump said of US late-night talk shows: ‘If you go back and you see they haven’t had a conservative on in years, I think somebody said, when you go back take a look, all they do is hit Trump.
‘They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They are an arm of the Democrat Party.’
Critics said Mr Trump’s threats marked a dangerous step towards eroding free speech.
Television stations affiliated with US networks such as NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC – which broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live! – must receive a licence from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because their content is transmitted over the air and is free to view.
Donald Trump has suggested US TV networks that criticise him should have their broadcast licences ‘taken away’
Mr Trump said the decision to revoke licences would ultimately have to be made by FCC chairman Brendan Carr, adding: ‘He loves our country and he’s a tough guy, so we’ll have to see.’
The row began when Kimmel, 57, falsely claimed on his Monday talk show that the man accused of shooting Charlie Kirk was a conservative. He said the ‘Maga [Make America Great Again] gang’ were ‘desperately trying to characterise this kid… as anything other than one of them’.
Police said the accused gunman Tyler Robinson had shown sympathy to far-Left ideologies.
Kimmel also criticised the President’s response to Mr Kirk’s death in which he lamented the loss of a ‘friend’ before moving on to boast of the construction of a ballroom in the White House.
Former president Barack Obama said: ‘After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by threatening regulatory action against media companies’.
And Kimmel’s rival late-night TV hosts came together to condemn Washington’s actions.
Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show – which CBS is axing next year, called the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live! a ‘blatant assault’ on freedom of speech.
On NBC’s The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon said Kimmel promised to ‘keep saying what we want to say’.
Elsewhere, a Florida judge dismissed Mr Trump’s $15billion (£11billion) defamation lawsuit against The New York Times yesterday, centred around a book and article looking at his role on the US version of The Apprentice.
Mr Trump claimed they ‘maliciously peddled the fact-free narrative’ that TV producer Mark Burnett turned him into a celebrity. But Judge Steven D Merryday dismissed the case, criticising the lawsuit for being too long.
