Donald Trump vowed to use the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a weapon against NBC News and various polling companies on Sunday as he angrily lashed out at coverage of his declining popularity and political endorsements.
In a pair of Truth Social messages, Trump wrote that the FCC – the U.S. government agency that regulates the media – would be directed against his varied list of targets, a move that comes as the commission’s chair has insisted that the FCC is not acting at the direction of the president when it has acted against his other foes.
Trump singled out NBC’s Kristen Welker, moderator of Meet the Press, and slammed her for accurately reporting that his endorsements have been met with mixed success this cycle. Her comments came on the heels of several Trump-endorsed candidates losing their primary races, including Rep. Cory Mills who was dragged down by scandal in his Florida primary, and Amir Hassan, who lost his Michigan primary for a U.S. House seat to an opponent who’d suspended his campaign.
Trump’s anger with Welker isn’t new; he previously stormed out of an interview with her in June after she challenged his claims about the 2020 election, which have been debunked.
The president wrote Sunday that Welker “will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment” over what he called a “purposeful inaccuracy” in stating the track record of his endorsed candidates this cycle.
“THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE!” Trump wrote in a second message.
Welker’s most recent interview was that explosive clash in June. At the time, the Meet the Press moderator told viewers that the president had agreed to another sit-down, and had blamed the rain for “complications” during the interview. Sunday’s remarks by the president diminish the odds that such a reunion will happen any time soon, but Trump is known for sometimes abruptly burying the hatchet with his critics in broadcast media.
His FCC chair, Brendan Carr, denied that his “nearly unprecedented” review of ABC’s license was related to Trump’s calls to fire Jimmy Kimmel last year. Even so, many media critics say that the FCC is exerting more pressure on major networks to avoid criticism of the president than ever before. ABC and its parent company Disney have sued the FCC over the license review, calling it a pressure campaign with the aim of changing ABC’s programming.
CBS canceled the long-running show of Kimmel’s colleague in the late night world, Stephen Colbert, after Colbert criticized his own network’s settlement with Trump over an unfavorable 60 Minutes interview at the same time the network’s parent company was seeking FCC approval for a merger.
The president’s post went on to tout his endorsement’s strength in the case of Darline Graham Nordone, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who won South Carolina’s primary for her brother’s seat for the upcoming term earlier this month. Graham Nordone, a newcomer to elected office, easily won over Rep. Ralph Norman, an ally of Trump’s old rival Nikki Haley and the House Freedom Caucus despite her admitted lack of political knowledge relating to some topics.
“Darline Graham’s run for the Senate was the biggest story in all of Politics, because she wasn’t expected to win, and then, when I Endorsed her, and she easily won, the story of her Victory was hardly covered by anybody,” wrote Trump.
His other post lashing out at polling companies comes amid an onslaught of new reporting suggesting that his approval ratings are plummeting with Republicans, whose elected representatives in Washington fear a blue wave in November’s midterms. Polling of the president’s national approval rating sits at just 33 percent in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll out this month, the lowest rating of any point in his presidency, and in a poll of the key swing state of Pennsylvania by Franklin & Marshall College poll this month his approval rating was at a staggeringly low 27 percent.
In South Carolina, the president’s refrain as he campaigned for Graham Nordone in the red state Republican primary was: “Pretend I’m on the ballot.”
“I see it all the time, that when Trump’s on the ballot, they win,” he said in a Fox News interview. “I’m asking the people … to get out and vote. Pretend I’m on the ballot.”
