Trump Targets ABC, NBC Licenses

When a sitting president demands TV networks lose their licenses for not airing his speech, it raises stark questions about who controls the national conversation in America.

Story Snapshot

President Trump used a primetime address on election security to threaten ABC and NBC’s broadcast licenses after they chose not to air it live.
Trump accused the networks of joining a “plot” to hide supposed election fraud and said “fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses.”
Legal and First Amendment experts say revoking licenses over editorial decisions is unconstitutional and beyond presidential power.
The clash highlights growing fears on both left and right that powerful media companies and government officials alike are serving their own interests, not the public’s.

Trump’s Speech And His Threat Against ABC And NBC

On July 16, President Donald Trump delivered a roughly 26-minute primetime speech from the White House focused on what he called “election security.” Near the end of the address, he turned his fire on ABC and NBC, which had decided not to carry the speech live on their main broadcast networks. Trump complained that the networks refused to air him “because they don’t like the topic” and said they were part of an effort to hide fraud from the American people.

Trump told viewers that ABC and NBC “are part of a plot” and claimed they wanted to “keep it going” and “protect the radical left.” He then argued that their decision not to air his remarks amounted to “fraud” against the public. “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses,” he said, adding that the networks “use our public, multi-billion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money” and that “all we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting.”

A Long-Running Fight Between Trump And The Broadcast Networks

Trump’s latest threat did not come out of nowhere. For years, he has attacked major television networks over coverage he calls “fake news” and floated pulling their broadcast licenses when they report stories he dislikes. In earlier comments, he said network news was “so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked,” framing negative coverage as unfair to the public and bad for the country.

In 2025, Trump singled out ABC and NBC as “two of the worst and biased networks in history,” claimed without evidence that 97 percent of their stories about him were negative, and urged the Federal Communications Commission to revoke their broadcast licenses or make them “pay big” for using the airwaves. He also called for ABC’s licenses to be “taken away” after an ABC reporter pressed him with questions about the Jeffrey Epstein controversy during an Oval Office appearance, saying the network’s news was “extremely misleading and inaccurate.”

What Power The Government Really Has Over Broadcast Licenses

Trump’s threats play into a real, but limited, system of government power over broadcast television. Local broadcast stations need licenses from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use public airwaves, and those licenses can, in rare cases, be revoked if a station fails to serve the “public interest.” However, experts note that the FCC has not used that power to pull a license in more than forty years, and never simply because officials disliked a station’s news coverage.

First Amendment and communications law specialists told USA Today that revoking a license because a station chose not to air a speech would violate basic free speech principles. One media lawyer said, “The First Amendment doesn’t permit the president to demand coverage by royal decree,” stressing that the government is not allowed to decide what is newsworthy and what must be carried live. An FCC commissioner, Anna Gomez, called Trump’s demand “ridiculous” and said the agency “has no authority to punish a station for refusing to air a blatantly political speech.”

Why This Clash Worries Americans Across The Political Spectrum

Many conservatives see major networks as part of a liberal elite that filters the news and often treats their views with disdain. For them, ABC and NBC refusing to air a presidential speech on elections looks like proof the media picks sides and hides information. At the same time, many liberals view Trump’s threats as an attack on press freedom and another step toward using government power to intimidate critics, a tactic they associate with authoritarian governments.

Both sides share a deeper fear: that powerful institutions answer to their own interests, not to ordinary Americans. When a president suggests punishing broadcasters for their editorial choices, and huge media companies decide what voters get to see in real time, it reinforces the idea that the national debate is controlled from the top down. Legal safeguards make Trump’s threats unlikely to succeed in court, but the pattern still alarms people who worry that the “rules” can be bent when enough power is at stake.