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Donald Trump Is a First Amendment Hatchet Man
The fate of the First Amendment won’t be up to Brendan Carr or Donald Trump. It will be up to the American people.
Sep 25, 2025
President Donald Trump can’t take a joke. Look at the 9:20 mark of this video from the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. As President Barack Obama skewered Trump over his insidious “birther” claim, Trump was “steaming” and “beside himself with fury” at the public humiliation.
Trump is now using the presidency and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to silence critics. Comedians are near the top of Trump’s hit list because satire is an effective political weapon.
Foreign enemies aren’t attacking the First Amendment. It’s an inside job.
Carr’s Confusion
As Carr observed in 2022:
“Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion. That’s why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship.”
But Carr has now abandoned First Amendment principles that he and conservatives have defended repeatedly:
- In 2018, he told a Senate oversight committee: “The First Amendment operates as a restraint on the government. The idea is that we don't put a thumb on the scale in favor of one speaker or the other. The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to encourage strong, robust -- perhaps rough in some situations -- discourse.”
- In 2023, he posted: “Free speech is the counterweight—it is the check on government control. That is why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.”
- And in an interview at an AI and tech conference on September 16, 2025—the day after Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue mentioning Charlie Kirk—Carr said: “I think you can draw a pretty clear line, and the Supreme Court has done this for decades, that our First Amendment, our free speech tradition, protects almost all speech.”
But a day later, Carr reversed course in a September 17 interview with a right-wing podcaster: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this—I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr added that the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at,” pointedly suggesting that local stations should “push back” and “step up” to protect their FCC licenses by pressuring networks to change programming content.
Hours later, two major owners of local television stations—Nexstar, which seeks FCC approval of its $6.2 billion acquisition of rival TEGNA, and Sinclair, which longstanding Trump supporters control—announced that they were preempting Kimmel’s program. Together those owners account for about one-quarter of ABC affiliates.
Before the day ended, Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel. Bipartisan outrage was immediate.
- Conservative podcaster Joe Rogan said that conservatives cheering support for government interference with Kimmel’s free speech rights were “crazy.”
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) likened Carr’s threat to mob-like behavior: “And I got to say, that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
Carr insisted that he hadn’t threatened anyone.
But when Disney announced Kimmel’s return, Carr responded: “Democrats just keep digging themselves a deeper & deeper hole on Kimmel….” He reiterated his plan to empower FCC-licensed local stations to reject network programming.
Then Carr took everyone through the looking glass and accused Democrats of “illegally weaponizing government to silence dissent.”
Trump’s Threats
As Carr insisted that he was not threatening ABC, Trump’s warnings were clear and direct. An hour before ABC aired Kimmel’s return, Trump posted:
“Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy.... I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
Trump's referencing of Disney’s $16 million payment to settle his dubious lawsuit against ABC proves what most children learn in elementary school: If you don’t stand up to a bully, you empower him and efforts to appease him will never be enough.
Nexstar and Sinclair didn’t air Kimmel’s return. But their Trump-pandering efforts to prevent viewers from seeing the program were futile: His monologue went viral with millions of views on YouTube.
During the monologue, Kimmel played a video of Trump saying that the late-night host “had no ratings.”
“I do tonight,” Kimmel quipped.
Future Fights
When CBS cancelled Colbert’s program, Trump gloated, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
When ABC suspended Kimmel, Trump posted:
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Then he added:
“That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT.”
But Trump’s media targets go far beyond late-night talk show hosts. Jonathan Karl of ABC News asked Trump about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s unconstitutional plan to “go after hate speech… A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech.”
“We’ll probably go after people like you,” Trump replied, “because you treat me so unfairly with hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart… So maybe they’ll have to go after you.”
The next day, Trump renewed his periodic threat to target negative network news coverage of him.
“They're getting a license,” Trump said. “I think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.”
Trump is incorrect. Kimmel returned to the airwaves because Carr’s threats produced bipartisan outrage, customers cancelled subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu, consumers began boycotts, Disney’s stock price dropped, and Hollywood A-list celebrities arrived in force to protest Kimmel’s suspension.
The fate of the First Amendment won’t be up to Brendan Carr or Donald Trump. It will be up to the American people. And they won’t go down without a fight.
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Sinclair, Nexstar Will Preempt Jimmy Kimmel Return on Stations They Own
"Although Sinclair isn't a fan of democracy, most people are," said one California senator.
Sep 23, 2025
Since Disney announced late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's Tuesday return after yanking him off the air last week, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which collectively control about a quarter of local ABC affiliates nationwide, have said they will preempt his show—a move seen by critics as deferential to the Trump administration and related to their business interests.
Shortly after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr suggested during a podcast interview that the FCC may retaliate against Disney-owned ABC for Kimmel's remarks about US President Donald Trump and the recent assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, the host was suspended "indefinitely."
The public, free speech advocates, other entertainers, and elected officials have sounded the alarm about both Carr's threat—which the FCC chair now claims is just "projection and distortion" by critics—and the host's suspension. Faced with a growing boycott movement, Disney revealed Monday that he would be back on air the following night.
Sinclair—which previously praised Carr's comments and argued that Kimmel's suspension was "not enough"—responded by announcing that it "will be preempting 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming," and "discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show's potential return."
Before Kimmel was suspended, Nexstar had planned to preempt his show due to his Kirk commentary. The company said Tuesday that "we stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve."
"In the meantime, we note that 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets," Nexstar added.
Critics suggested the preemption decisions may be tied to the companies' current business dealings. David Sirota, founder of The Lever, pointed out on social media Monday that "Sinclair is currently lobbying the Trump FCC to relax local media ownership rules."
Sirota linked to his outlet's reporting from last month. As his colleague Freddy Brewster detailed:
The Nexstar Media Group, which operates more than 200 local television stations in 116 markets across the country, and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative news company that operates 185 stations in 85 markets nationwide, filed comment letters in April with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to move forward with its proposal to gut rules barring companies from owning more than two major news channels in one market area or reaching more than 39% of the general public.
The ownership caps were designed to "promote localism and competition by restricting the number of media outlets that a single entity may own or control within a geographic market," according to a 2021 congressional analysis. But in their comment letters, the broadcast companies argue they need to purchase more stations to compete with technology companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon that have come to dominate viewership and ad revenue.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) similarly said on social media Tuesday that "Nexstar, the largest TV broadcaster, needs Donald Trump's approval for a $6 billion deal. If approved, Nexstar would control TV stations reaching 80% of households—violating the cap set by Congress to protect against monopolies. This censorship of Kimmel reeks of corruption."
While Kimmel's imminent return has been celebrated as a victory for free speech and public pressure, advocates have also continued to highlight the ongoing threats from Trump, his allies, and corporate giants.
"ABC made the right call to return Jimmy Kimmel to air," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a Monday statement. "It should never have suspended him to begin with, and resisted the government’s desire to control what people say. Hopefully, other media outlets will also find their spines and resist the Trump administration's efforts to cudgel them into obeisance."
Before Disney's announcement on Monday, "more than 475 artists came together to speak up with one voice, and more than 40,000 people added their names in solidarity in just a few hours," he noted. "We can rest assured this won't be the administration's last attempt to pressure private companies into punishing employees for speech it does not like. Let this be a lesson to companies who consider caving: We the people are watching, and we'll remember who stood strong in defense of free expression, and who followed the federal government's bidding."
Meanwhile, Campaign for Accountability on Tuesday filed a bar complaint asking the District of Columbia Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission to investigate Carr. The nonprofit watchdog group's executive director, Michelle Kuppersmith, said that his "actions undermine public trust in not only the agency he leads, but in government neutrality across the board," and called for thorough probes and "appropriate disciplinary measures."
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'The Fight Doesn’t End Here': Despite Kimmel's Return, Accountability Demanded for Trump's FCC Chair, Media Execs
"Congress should investigate and put everyone involved under oath at a public hearing to get to the bottom of this threat to free speech," said the co-CEO of Free Press.
Sep 23, 2025
Jimmy Kimmel will return to the airwaves Tuesday night after his suspension by ABC was met with a massive public backlash. But while they say the comedian's reinstatement is cause for celebration, advocates say that it's just one small victory in a much larger fight against the Trump administration's campaign to censor dissent.
Andrew O’Neill, the advocacy director of the group Indivisible, which called on its members to boycott ABC's parent company Disney in response to the company's capitulation to President Donald Trump, said that Kimmel "wasn’t reinstated because Disney executives slept on it and had a change of heart."
"He’s back on air because those executives got a wake-up call from the American public," O'Neill said. "People all over the country showed up, canceling subscriptions, protesting outside ABC and Disney, Nexstar and more, and made it damn clear this political alliance with Trump was not in Disney’s best interest. Trump’s authoritarian playbook is unpopular, and when these CEOs comply, it’s not only cowardly. It’s unstrategic."
Kimmel's program was suspended last week after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr threatened the broadcast licenses of local ABC affiliates, which led to pressure from the media conglomerates the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar to take action against Kimmel following comments he made criticizing Trump and his administration's reaction to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the media monitoring nonprofit Free Press, said that Kimmel's reinstatement shows that "protest works." However, he said, "the Trump regime’s war on free speech is no joke—and it’s not over. Brendan Carr threatened the licenses of ABC affiliates with coercive, mafia-like threats because his boss in the White House didn’t like Kimmel’s views, a chilling First Amendment violation that would have forced any previous FCC chair to resign."
“The next time the Trump administration uses its power to shut down dissent, a rich and famous comedian likely won’t be the target," Aaron continued. "We are seeing journalists being fired and even deported for simply reporting the facts about this administration. Their stories are not making headline news, but the government’s attacks on their speech are no less important."
In the days after Kimmel was forced off the air, Trump also threatened to strip the broadcasting licenses of networks that gave him "bad press," saying, "They're not allowed to do that."
"While we’re glad Kimmel is back on air," O'Neill said, "the fight doesn’t end here. FCC Chairman Carr still must be hauled up to Congress to testify. Sinclair and Nexstar must commit to airing the program and drop their wild demands. And Bob Iger and Disney must make it clear they are fully opposed to being bullied by Trump and his cronies."
Sinclair and Nexstar, which own a combined 20% of ABC's local news affiliates, said Tuesday that they will refuse to air Kimmel's broadcast. In order for Kimmel to return, Sinclair—known for its efforts to push right-wing talking points into the mouths of local anchors—has demanded that Kimmel issue a public apology and make a "meaningful personal donation" to Kirk's family and to his conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA.
As Aaron noted, Sinclair and Nexstar, two of the US's largest owners of local media, are currently "lobbying for a major merger requiring FCC approval," which he said may explain why they were so eager to pressure ABC to comply with Carr's demands. Last week, Democrats in the House of Representatives called on Carr to resign from his post and threatened to subject him to an investigation.
Beyond Carr, Aaron said that "Congress should investigate and put everyone involved under oath at a public hearing to get to the bottom of this threat to free speech" including Nexstar founder Perry Sook, Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley and chairman David Smith, and Disney's Iger, so the public can understand "what pressure the government put on these media companies and what they were promised in exchange for cutting shows from their lineup and silencing network voices."
Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), told MSNBC's Ali Velshi that the Kimmel saga is emblematic of a much broader problem of capitulation by corporations that have grown less accountable due to unchecked consolidation.
"Overwhelmingly, we have seen that some of the most powerful corporations in this country... have chosen profit and self-enrichment over any kind of commitment to democracy or the principles of liberty," Khan said. "We've heard people say, 'Well, actually, we really need to protect and pacify corporate interests because they're going to be the ones that are going to stand up to government abuse. This moment should entirely disabuse us of that illusion."
She discussed that this moment comes after "40 years of a bipartisan choice to accept a philosophy that basically thought monopolies are good, that consolidation was good." This has been particularly evident in the media. As a recent article from the University of Chicago's business school notes:
In the past decade, consolidation of American TV broadcasting has accelerated and put 40% of all local TV news stations under the control of the three largest broadcast conglomerates: Gray Television, Nexstar Media Group, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Their stations—each company now owns about 100 affiliated with ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC—operate in more than 80 percent of US media markets.
"If you're somebody who cares about protecting democracy, of course, we need to care about voting rights, making sure that elections are fair," Khan said. "But we also need to make sure that we understand extreme concentration of economic power is incompatible with democracy, and that needs to be at the center of our democratic agenda too."
Update: This article has been updated to note additional reporting from the New York Times that Nexstar, as well as Sinclair, would refuse to air Kimmel's program Tuesday night.
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