After seemingly settling a score with CBS in the settlement of his 60 Minutes lawsuit, Donald Trumpis setting his sights on ABC and NBC, which he claims are political pawns of the Democratic Party.
“Wow, ‘Concast’s’ NBC is down in viewership almost 28% this year,” the U.S. president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday, July 26. “Their programming is terrible, their management even worse. They are an arm of the Democrat Party, and should be held accountable for that. Likewise, Fake News ABC!”
Seven minutes later, he had more to say on the matter. “Networks aren’t allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party,” he wrote. “It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked!”
Trump did not provide evidence of NBC and ABC being political pawns for the Democrats, nor did he cite a source for the purported dip in NBC ratings. According to ratings data cited by NewscastStudio, NBC Nightly News charted year-over-year audience growth for the second quarter of 2025 under new host Tom Llamas, ranking as the only evening newscast to post gains in both total viewers and adults 25-54 from the same time last year.
Though he once was an NBC star himself via his involvement with The Apprentice, Trump has taken aim at NBC and other broadcast networks before.
“With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License?” he wrote on Twitter in October 2017, per Brookings. “Bad for country!”
He added at the time: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!”
Ajit Pal, then the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, responded to Trump’s comments. “Under the law, the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast,” he said at the time, per The Washington Post.
Then, in October 2024, Trump criticized the networks again. “60 Minutes is a major part of the News Organization of CBS, which has just created the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History,” he claimed on Truth Social, per Brookings. “CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS — and maybe even WORSE!”