The Standing

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

    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.

    Jurisdiction
    federal
    Location
    Washington, D.C. (nationwide)

    Abuses documented

    Actors

    • Federal Communications Commission
    • Brendan Carr (FCC Chairman)
    • Donald Trump (President of the United States)

    "This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere. This political stunt won't stick."

    — CNN

    On April 28, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission ordered The Walt Disney Company to file early license-renewal applications, within 30 days, for the eight ABC-owned broadcast stations it operates in cities including New York and Chicago. The order does not touch the 200-plus independently owned ABC affiliates, and the eight licenses at issue were not otherwise due for renewal for years. The FCC said it had been investigating the stations "for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC's rules, including the agency's prohibition on unlawful discrimination," tying the move to Chairman Brendan Carr's characterization of Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion programs as discriminatory.

    The order landed one day after President Trump, on Truth Social, blamed Kimmel for an incident outside the White House Correspondents' Association dinner and said he "should be immediately fired" — escalating a pressure campaign over a Kimmel joke about First Lady Melania Trump. An early-renewal call of this kind had not been issued in decades; legal observers noted that the standard for denying a renewal is "almost insurmountable" and that any hearing and review would take years, during which the stations operate normally. That gap between the procedural step and any plausible penalty is why critics described the order as a use of process itself as punishment.

    Anna Gomez, the FCC's lone Democratic commissioner, said the action was "unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere," urging companies to "challenge it head-on" because "the First Amendment is on their side." Press-freedom advocates echoed the point: the Freedom of the Press Foundation called it "illegal jawboning intended to intimidate ABC," arguing the FCC "is neither the journalism police nor the humor police." Using the commission's licensing authority against a broadcaster the day after the President demanded a host's firing fits a documented pattern of wielding regulatory levers to retaliate against disfavored speech.

    Sources

    1. Trump administration challenges ABC station licenses amid Kimmel controversy — CNN primary accessed June 5, 2026
    2. FCC orders review of ABC's broadcast licenses — Axios primary accessed June 5, 2026
    3. FCC orders early license renewals for ABC stations after criticism from Trump — NPR secondary accessed June 5, 2026
    4. Trump's FCC Orders ABC to File Broadcast TV License Renewals Within 30 Days in Wake of Jimmy Kimmel's Melania Joke — Variety secondary
    5. FCC Orders Review of ABC Licenses After Trump Calls for Jimmy Kimmel to Be Fired — Democracy Now! secondary

    See also