Donald Trump on Sunday said NBC’s Kristen Welker – host of Meet the Press – should face “rebuke or punishment” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Preceding Trump’s comments was a live shot by Welker in which she described the success record of political candidates whom president had endorsed as “mixed” on Washington DC’s NBC affiliate prior to the airing of Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press, according to CNN media reporter and commentator Brian Stelter.
The president then took verbal aim at Welker with a social media post deriding her as the “Unpopular ‘Hostess’ of … Meet the Fake Press,” accused her of “purposeful inaccuracy” and warned that she would “be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment”.
The post also said that Trump hoped his appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr – and Carr’s colleagues on the commission – “take this Threat to our Country very seriously”.
Once Meet the Press actually started on Sunday, a guest analyst on the show said “the single most important factor in who the Republican nominee will be in [the presidential election of] ۲۰۲۸ will be who Donald Trump endorses”.
Trump is estimated to have made more than ۳۰۰ endorsements that resulted in the recipient winning. In the election cycle leading up to November’s midterms, ۲۱۴ of the ۲۱۸ House candidates he endorsed winning their primaries, including all ۲۴ Republican senate primaries.
Meanwhile, in gubernatorial primaries, five of the ۲۱ candidates he endorsed lost their primaries, among them Mike Lindell – who finished a distant second in Minnesota to state house speaker Lisa Demuth.
The state’s supreme court on Saturday effectively confirmed Lindell’s ۱۱-percentage-point defeat by rejecting his bid for a recount.
“My Endorsements are stronger than ever,” Trump nonetheless maintained in a ۲۳ August social media post. “There has never been anything close!”
When taking aim on Welker on Sunday, he touted recent primary victories by South Carolina US Senate candidate Darline Graham – sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham – and Oklahoma gubernatorial hopeful Mike Mazzei.
He had said days earlier that any of his endorsed candidates who lost were already faced with “impossible” races – but they had earned his support “out of loyalty”.
How much power Trump’s endorsement carries has been a touchy issue for the president. On Friday, HBO Max talkshow host Bill Maher apologized to Trump for claiming that the president is winning “almost none of” his endorsements. Trump had sent Maher statistics making the president’s case that the talkshow host was wrong.
Welker and Trump have a contentious relationship. In June, he walked out of an hour-long interview with the host after being asked, among other unpleasant topics for him, about having pledged “no new wars” during his successful run for a second presidency.
He started war in Iran in late February alongside Israel, and Trump denied guaranteeing there would no wars if he were returned to the Oval Office.
“You’re a one-sided crooked network,” Trump said at the time. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
He added: “You ought to straighten out your press. A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”
Trump’s comments on Sunday about Welker were only the latest instance of him or his administration seeking to bring the weight of the FCC down on media outlets with whom he has become cross.
In September ۲۰۲۵, Carr – appointed by Trump – reportedly put pressure on television station groups to pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel’s show as punishment for a comment that the ABC host, a frequent critic of the president, made in the wake of the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. Two conservative-friendly broadcast groups, Sinclair and Nexstar, did so. And ABC opted to “indefinitely” pull Kimmel’s show before he ultimately returned to the air a week later.
Trump has also won private settlements from ABC and CBS totaling more than $۳۰m during his second presidency.
Earlier in August, ABC sued the FCC, arguing that it was being illegally targeted by the regulator after being forced to apply early to renew its eight local broadcast licenses. Among Republicans’ complaints about ABC are that its candidates are not given equal airtime on the daytime talkshow The View.
“Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” the network said in its lawsuit.
NBC is licensed by the FCC to directly operate ۱۱ local stations. The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Involving itself in broadcast outlets’ editorial decisions and constitutionally protected speech is beyond the mandate of the FCC, which was established in ۱۹۳۴.
Stelter on Sunday wrote that the FCC “can’t punish Welker” because it has “limited power … by design”. But Stelter noted that Carr has been “responsive” to Trump in the past – and “it’s reasonable to think NBC will be targeted next”.
