Donald Trump has once again threatened a major broadcast network after he dropped out of an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS.
He baselessly suggested that the network did something criminal when the program interviewed his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, and claimed without evidence that the interview violated campaign finance laws.
“I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (‘cut and pasted’) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the ‘News Division,’ which must be licensed, to make her look ‘more Presidential,’ or a least, better,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
He claimed that the interview may amount to a “major Campaign Finance Violation” and demanded a “MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY.”
The former president, raising spurious allegations of corruption and bias, has repeatedly threatened to somehow revoke broadcast licenses for major networks that air critical coverage.
Last month, Trump demanded that the news network that hosted his first and only matchup with Harris have its “license” revoked after his widely panned performance.
He called in to Fox News the morning after the late-night debate to blame ABC News moderators and the network and suggested he would not want to do another debate at all.
“To be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” he told Fox & Friends, referencing moderators’ real-time fact checks of several false claims, including conspiracy theories about immigrants stealing and eating pets and “after birth” abortions.
In 2018, in response to a story about his push to increase the nation’s nuclear arsenal, he wrote: “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”
In September of last year, he suggested that Comcast — the parent company of NBC and MSNBC — should be investigated for “Country Threatening Treason” because of its coverage of Russian interference in his 2016 campaign.
One month later, he publicly questioned why CBS News should “get free public airwaves” after it broadcast an interview with President Joe Biden, a segment that he called a “hit job” against him.
“Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!” he added.
Trump lashed out at journalists as “fake news” and “enemy of the people” more than 2,000 times in his presidency, according to The Independent’s review of his statements. He has also suggested journalists should be thrown in jail for not revealing their sources, and has reportedly privately weighed using federal law enforcement to investigate publishers.
Project 2025’s plans for the next Republican president’s administration also supports defunding public broadcasting outlets like PBS and NPR, and urges an incoming administration to re-evaluate its relationship with the media, including potentially dissolving the White House press corps.
Trump has also filed lawsuits against The New York Times and CNN in apparent attempts to gut long-standing Supreme Court precedent that limits the ability of public officials to sue for defamation.
He also sued ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulas for defamation, after the host pressed congresswoman Nancy Mace about her support for the former president, despite a judge finding him “liable for rape by a jury.”
