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Did Brendan Carr Threaten to Take NBC Off the Air? What Trump and the FCC Chairman Said

Trump said broadcasters could lose licenses over coverage he disliked and called on NBC to cancel Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. Carr said he did not speak for the president; the FCC licenses local stations, not NBC as a national network.
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No FCC order took NBC off the air. In September 2025, Donald Trump publicly suggested broadcasters could lose licenses over coverage he disliked and said the decision would be up to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Trump separately called for NBC to cancel Jimmy Fallon’s and Seth Meyers’s late-night shows. Asked whether the FCC agreed, Carr replied, “I don’t speak for the president,” then discussed broadcasters’ public-interest obligations and local stations’ ability to preempt programs under contract.

What Trump said about broadcasters and NBC

On September 18, 2025, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that broadcasters’ licenses might be taken away because they gave him “bad publicity.” NBC News reported his remark: “I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.” Trump also described evening shows as “an arm of the Democrat Party.” NBC News reported the comments.

Trump also called on NBC to cancel The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Those remarks concerned NBC’s late-night programming. They were separate from the ABC dispute over Jimmy Kimmel, which NBC News described as preceding Trump’s September comments.

How Carr responded when asked about Fallon and Meyers

At a September 2025 CNBC interview, an anchor asked Carr whether the FCC shared Trump’s view that Fallon and Meyers should be taken off the air. Carr answered, “I don’t speak for the president.” He then said the agency’s obligation was to ensure broadcasters served the public interest and noted that local television stations could preempt programming under their contracts. The exchange is reproduced in a House hearing document.

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When asked about Trump’s phrase “we’re not done yet,” Carr said it was not about a particular show or person and referred to changes he expected in the media ecosystem. That answer, too, was Carr’s characterization of his remarks—not an announcement that the FCC had ordered NBC programming removed.

Why “NBC’s license” is not quite right

The FCC licenses individual broadcast stations, including local affiliates that carry network programs. NBC, as a national network, does not hold one FCC broadcast license that the agency could simply revoke to remove the entire network from television. So “take NBC off the air” is shorthand for pressure on stations that broadcast NBC programming, not a description of a single network-wide license.

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The distinction also matters for the FCC’s reach. CBS News reports that the agency’s content authority concerns over-the-air broadcasting; cable, satellite, and online programming are treated differently. A threat about broadcast licenses does not, by itself, mean the FCC can remove a show from every platform where viewers might watch it. CBS News explains the licensing and content distinction.

What Carr’s public-interest argument does—and does not—establish

In the September exchange, Carr invoked the public-interest obligations of broadcasters and said local stations could preempt programs under their contracts. That describes the rationale he offered and a possibility for local stations; it is not evidence that the FCC had revoked a license or ordered NBC affiliates to drop the shows.

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In March 2026, CBS News reported that Carr wrote that broadcasters airing “hoaxes and news distortions” could lose licenses if they failed to serve the public interest. That later statement concerned broadcaster news coverage and license renewals, not Trump’s September 2025 demand about NBC’s late-night shows. The two episodes should not be treated as one FCC action.

How the ABC and Kimmel episodes differ

Carr’s earlier pressure on ABC is relevant context, but it was a different dispute with a different target. The Senate Commerce Committee said Carr threatened ABC affiliate licenses if they did not “take action . . . on Kimmel”; the committee also said Nexstar announced it would preempt the program and ABC suspended it. Those are the committee’s descriptions of events, not a judicial finding. The committee statement is available here.

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In May 2026, Democratic senators on the committee criticized a later FCC order requiring Disney to file early renewals for eight ABC broadcast stations. The senators linked the timing to Trump’s public demands about Kimmel and called the action an abuse of power. That is their argument; the cited account does not establish that a court adopted their legal conclusion. Their letter and statement are here.

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Does threatening a broadcaster over its coverage violate the First Amendment?

Critics have argued that government threats tied to editorial decisions violate the First Amendment. Senator Maria Cantwell, the Senate Commerce Committee’s ranking member, said Carr “does not have the authority to police speech that he or the President don’t personally like.” That is Cantwell’s legal and political position, not a court holding.

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TIME’s analysis describes legal and First Amendment limits on revoking licenses because officials dislike editorial content. It is journalistic analysis rather than an FCC order or a court judgment. The sources cited here do not establish a final court ruling resolving the constitutionality of the conduct at issue. TIME’s analysis discusses those limits.

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