The American president is not happy that ABC and NBC did not air his primetime address on Thursday, July 16. During the address to the nation, Trump detailed what he believed to be widespread fraud during the 2020 presidential election, an election that he lost to former President Joe Biden.

As Trump came to the end of his 26-minute address, he criticized both NBC and ABC for not broadcasting it live, accusing the networks of not liking the topic. The president went on to say that “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public, multi-billion-dollar in value, airways for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting.”

It should be noted that both networks did air Trump's speech on their streaming platforms. In addition, comprehensive coverage through various media platforms was also provided after the speech ended.

FCC Response to Trump's Threat

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr has not issued a public statement on the president's threats to revoke these licenses. This is somewhat surprising to some legal experts, as Carr has in the past threatened to pull licenses due to coverage of the war in Iran. Carr is widely known as a staunch ally of the Trump administration.

On the flip side, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called Trump's urging to revoke the licenses "ridiculous." In a statement to USA TODAY, Gomez said that the FCC does not have the power to punish a network for "refusing to air a blatantly political speech." Gomez was appointed to her position by Biden.

Gomez posted a similar opinion on her X account on July 17. The post included screenshots of past news headlines when networks had declined to air speeches by both Biden and former President Barack Obama when they were in the Oval Office. In the post, Gomez said that “This is a naked attempt to bully broadcasters, and the FCC should have no part in it." Gomez has previously accused the FCC of playing a part in partisan politics and being overly supportive of Trump.

Legal experts are mostly aligned in their opinions that the FCC does not have the authority to revoke broadcast licenses simply because a network does not air a presidential speech. The right to make this decision falls under First Amendment protections.

Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said, “The First Amendment doesn’t permit the president to demand coverage by royal decree. This is First Amendment law 101.”

Echoing those sentiments, Institute for Free Speech President David Keating noted that “The government is not in charge of deciding what is newsworthy and what isn’t newsworthy, what needs to be carried live and what doesn’t."

Despite the insistence by First Amendment experts that the FCC does not have the authority to revoke licenses over a matter such as this, both Corn-Revere and Keating said that it would not surprise them if Carr made an attempt to punish the broadcasters over the editorial decision.

Ongoing Issues Between the FCC and ABC

The latest threat by the president is a continuation of the strife between the FCC and ABC. Most recently, the FCC launched what it calls an "enforcement action" against the Disney-owned network in February after state Rep. James Talarico appeared on the talk show The View while running for the Texas U.S. Senate Democratic primary.

According to Carr, ABC had not submitted the paperwork needed to declare that a political candidate would appear on air. This type of notice is required so that any opposing candidate can file a request to receive “comparable time and placement.”  

In May, the FCC solicited input from the public about whether The View should be exempt from the mandate to provide equal broadcast opportunities to candidates. Over 50,000 comments had been filed by the end of June, prompting ABC to initiate an on-air campaign to ask the public for their opinion.

ABC officials accused the FCC of "chilling speech ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 general election” as part of a legal filing on July 6.

In April, the FCC ordered ABC to file license renewals for its eight different television stations by the end of May. This request for renewals was years ahead of schedule. The FCC said they are investigating these ABC stations “for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.”  However, Disney said that it is confident in its record of adhering to the requirements.

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