Brendan Carr
Brendan Carr is the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, designated by President Trump in January 2025. He has served as an FCC commissioner since 2017 and authored the telecommunications chapter of the Project 2025 policy blueprint. He oversees broadcast licensing, spectrum policy, and telecommunications regulation.
2026 Events (4)
FCC Chairman Carr warned ABC that not airing Trump's speech would factor into its ongoing broadcast license review
On July 22, 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly stated that ABC's decision not to air President Trump's prime-time White House address on its broadcast network would be considered as part of the FCC's ongoing license renewal review of Disney's eight ABC-owned television stations. Carr made the statement at an FCC press conference, framing the network's editorial choice as a potential violation of broadcasters' public interest obligations. Both ABC and NBC declined to carry the speech on their broadcast channels, though both networks streamed it online.
FCC orders early license review of Disney's ABC stations a day after Trump demands Kimmel's firing
On April 28, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission ordered The Walt Disney Company to file early renewal applications within 30 days for the eight ABC-owned broadcast television stations it operates, licenses not otherwise due for renewal for years. The order came one day after President Trump publicly demanded that ABC fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump. The FCC cited an open investigation into Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a rationale widely viewed as pretextual given the timing.
FCC Chair Carr boasts at CPAC that Trump is 'winning' against the 'fake news media'
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas on March 27, 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr declared that President Trump "is winning" his fight against the "fake news media," citing the defunding of PBS and NPR, the departures of named journalists and hosts, and ownership changes at CBS and CNN as "results." Carr added the administration was "not at the point yet" of "raising the mission accomplished flag," a week after he had warned broadcasters they would "lose their licenses" over Iran War coverage he called "hoaxes and news distortions."
FCC Chair Carr threatens broadcasters' licenses over Iran war coverage
On Saturday, March 14, 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly warned that television broadcasters "running hoaxes and news distortions" about the war in Iran could "lose their licenses," telling them to "correct course before their license renewals come up." Carr issued the threat while amplifying a Truth Social post by President Trump attacking war coverage by outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Media-law experts and lawmakers called the threat from the nation's chief broadcast regulator "authoritarian" and "unconstitutional."
2025 Events (3)
FCC Chair Carr and Commissioner Trusty accepted Kennedy Center gala seats amid pending Paramount merger review
On December 7, 2025, FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty attended the Kennedy Center Honors gala while Paramount's mergers were before the commission. Trusty accepted tickets worth more than $12,000 that ProPublica confirmed came from Paramount; Carr sat in a private $125,000 skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison, though the source of his seat was unconfirmed pending his outstanding financial disclosure. Both had voted five months earlier to approve Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, and neither had recused from the company's pending $110 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Trump threatened TV broadcast license revocations; FCC chair targeted The View's news-program status
On September 18, 2025, President Trump publicly threatened to revoke broadcast licenses of television networks he deemed biased, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr questioned whether ABC's daytime talk show The View still qualified as a "bona fide news program" — a reclassification that would subject ABC affiliates to the FCC's equal-opportunity rule, requiring equal airtime for any political candidate appearing on the show. Trump explicitly deferred to Carr to determine whether licenses "should be taken away," and the FCC's lone Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, characterized the agency's conduct as a "campaign of censorship and control."
FCC Chair Carr threatened ABC license action over Kimmel's Charlie Kirk comments; ABC indefinitely suspended Kimmel
On September 17, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly threatened ABC affiliates with regulatory consequences if they did not act against late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over Kimmel's recent comments about Charlie Kirk. Within hours, Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group — both with transactions pending FCC approval — announced they would preempt Kimmel's show, and ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely that same day. Former FCC senior official Gigi Sohn called it "the most blatant" use of the FCC's bully pulpit to intimidate a major network in the history of the agency.