Trump suggests networks who cover him 'negatively' could lose licenses

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'I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop,' Trump's FCC chair tells Fox

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, praised the owners of local TV stations that broadcast ABC programming for putting pressure on the network’s owner, Disney, to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air, in response to what Carr called Kimmel’s “distortion” of the news about Charlie Kirk’s murder in a monologue on Monday.

“The key point is these were local TV stations, licensed by the FCC, that have a public interest obligation to serve their local community, they pushed back on Disney,” Carr said, referring to ABC affiliated stations owned and operated by Nexstar and Sinclair that decided to take Kimmel off the air. Those station owner, in Carr’s words, “said ‘We don’t think that this type of programming is responsive to the needs of our viewers in Utah, in Pennsylvania,’ and that’s exactly the way the system is supposed to work.”

We’re going to back to that era when local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think,” Carr added.

He then suggested that pressure from the FCC on the local license holders had been a factor. “We’re constraining the power… of Disney of Comcast. I think the American public are going to be much better off,” he said. “I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop. This is a massive shift that’s taking place in the media ecosystem the consequences will continue to flow.”

Carr’s mention of Comcast, which owns NBC, might be ominous for the network’s late-night hosts Jimmy Fallow and Seth Meyers, both of whom Donald Trump has called for to be fired over their criticism of him.

In July, Carr wrote to Comcast to announce that he that he had launched an investigation into the company’s relations with its NBC affiliates, after Trump called for the network to be held “accountable” for what he called content favoring the Democratic party.

Chair of Senate health committee calls on RFK Jr to 'share his side of the story' after fired CDC director's testimony

The chairman of the Senate’s health committee, Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who is also a medical doctor, called on Thursday for the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to appear before the committee again, one day after it heard from the fired director of the CDC, Susan Monarez.

“I am inviting Secretary Kennedy to speak with the Committee to share his side of the story,” Cassidy wrote in a statement.

Monarez testified on Wednesday that Kennedy had tried to get her to agree in advance to approve whatever vaccine recommendations a panel of outside experts, including anti-vaccine activists appointed by him, issued, without applying her own scientific judgement, or consulting CDC scientists. When she refused, he fired her.

Lost creator pledges not to work with Disney unless it puts Jimmy Kimmel back on the air

As Writers Guild of America union members protested the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel outside Disney/ABC in Los Angeles on Thursday, a powerful Hollywood showrunner, Damon Lindelof, has promised not to work with Disney unless it puts Kimmel back on the air.

Lindelof, a creator of the ABC series Lost and other dramas, wrote on Instagram:

I was shocked, saddened and infuriated by yesterday’s suspension and look forward to it being lifted soon. If it isn’t, I can’t in good conscience work for the company that imposed it.

Lindelof also wrote: “if you know Jimmy… You know he loves his country. You know he appreciates a good roast and he can take as good as he gives. You know he supported his crew through multiple strikes and you know he is generous and philanthropic and most of all, you know that he is kind.”

José Olivares

Immigrant rights protesters in New York are blocking the garage where Ice leaves to transport immigrants detained by the agency. Photograph: José Olivares

In the final answer of his Fox News interview, Trump said that while it is “ideally” his job to bring people together, “success” ultimately brought people together in the past.

“I think the only thing that’s going to bring them is tremendous success, and that includes economic success,” Trump said, after suggesting that the Covid-19 pandemic was part of the reason behind the rise in “tremendous hatred”.

The president has received intense criticism from Democratic leaders for politicizing Charlie Kirk’s murder, and blaming the “radical left” for his death without denouncing political violence at large.

In his interview with Fox News, Donald Trump said that he’s not sure about who is behind what he sees as “crazed” behavior and statements, following the killing of Charlie Kirk. He noted one example of someone trampling through flowers and tributes to Kirk outside Turning Point USA’s headquarters in Arizona.

When Martha MacCallum asked the president who he thinks is “behind” these actions, Trump said: “You hear [George] Soros, I don’t know.”

He added that “we’re going to find out if he’s behind it, but it’s incitement to riot”.

Trump says American manufacturing will take effect 'in a year or so'

The president just said, in line with his previous comments, that the revitalization in American manufacturing will start to really take effect in a “year or so”.

“Car companies are moving back,” Trump said. “They’re all coming back now to the United States. They’re building car companies and factories, all of the coming back from Mexico and Canada.”

'He's a very fine guy', Trump says of British PM Starmer

Donald Trump said that Keir Starmer is a “very fine guy” when asked about how the British prime minister is handling immigration in the UK.

“He’s more liberal than me. I think he should take a very strong stand on the immigration it’s really hurting him badly,” Trump added. “I think he has to open up the North Sea. They have some of the best oil in the world, and they have a lot of it.”

Trump says King Charles is a 'tremendous man' in Fox News interview

The president has said King Charles is a “tremendous man who really stepped into a very tough position” in an interview with Fox News, airing now.

When asked about the substance of Trump’s conversation with King Charles, the president said: “I think that he was more interested in trade. You know, he loves the environment too. He likes to talk about the environment, but he was more interested in trade than anything else.”

The president added that Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), is “outstanding as a patriot”.

Carr faced calls from top House Democrats to resign today, while congressman Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, even motioned to subpoena Carr in front of the House Oversight committee.

“This administration has initiated the largest assault on the first amendment and free speech in modern history. They’re making comedy illegal,” Khanna said.

For his part, Trump said that the head of the FCC “loves our country” and that “he’s a tough guy”.

“I think Brendan Carr is doing a great job, and I think he’s a great patriot,” the president added.

Trump suggests that networks who cover him 'negatively' should lose their licenses

On Air Force One, Donald Trump gaggled with reporters on his flight back to the US. The president said that the major US networks were “97% against me”.

He didn’t offer evidence to prove this figure, or how this conclusion was evaluated. He simply said that he read the statistic “someplace”.

“Again, 97% negative, and yet I won easily. I won all seven swing states,” Trump added. “They give me only bad press. I mean they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their licenses should be taken away.”

Barack Obama weighs in on Kimmel suspension, accuses Trump administration of 'muzzling' or 'firing' dissenters

Former president Barack Obama has weighed in on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show.

“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,” Obama wrote in a post on X.

He also shared an article about fired Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, who says she was dismissed from the paper for social media posts she made following the killing of Charlie Kirk, where she denounced political violence, but lamented the lack of action to curb gun violence.

Obama said her firing was “precisely the kind of government coercion that the first amendment was designed to prevent – and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.

Earlier, at a press conference with Democratic lawmakers introducing the No Political Enemies (Nope) Act, senator Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, gave a hint as to how Democrats may get around the GOP’s rejection of their effort to protect dissenting speech, noting the issue could come into play in the ongoing dispute over how to fund the government and prevent a shutdown after 30 September.

“I’ll just speak for myself – I do not think Democrats have an obligation to fund the destruction of our democracy. And so, of course, for me, I am going to require that there be at least some modicum of protections for democracy in any budget that we pass,” he said, adding: “Why would we write a budget that the president isn’t even committed to implementing? Why would we fund this level of lawlessness at a moment that the country is under threat?”