US president says regulator should consider removing broadcast licences from those who ‘hit Trump’.

United States President Donald Trump has suggested that regulators clamp down on critical media.

The call came on Thursday evening as Trump continued to relish in the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. The backlash against media and others deemed to he disrespectful regarding the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has raised fears that free speech is under attack.

Kimmel’s late-night talk show was taken off the air on Wednesday, with critics pointing to comments he made about Kirk’s murder. The comedian has, in the past, regularly lampooned Trump.

“He made a total FOOL of himself,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, reposting a clip from last year’s Academy Awards in which Kimmel took aim at the US leader.

Earlier in the day, Trump said Kimmel was fired because he said a “horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk”.

Trump told reporters on his return from visiting the United Kingdom that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – which regulates all broadcasts in the US – should consider removing the licences of broadcasters who “hit Trump”.

“I would think maybe their licence should be taken away,” Trump said, though federal law prohibits the FCC from revoking a broadcaster’s licence for negative coverage or speech disliked by the government.

“It will be up to [FCC Chair] Brendan Carr,” Trump added.

The Disney-owned ABC network removed the Jimmy Kimmel Live show from programming indefinitely on Wednesday after an opening monologue by Kimmel in which he said “the MAGA gang” was trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s death.

Disney made the move after the FCC’s Carr – a Trump appointee – appeared to imply on a right-wing podcast that Kimmel’s remarks had put Disney’s licence in jeopardy.

“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said.

“They have a licence granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with an obligation to operate in the public interest.”

Kimmel was due to meet with three Disney network executives to discuss the fate of his show, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

The comedian is the latest in a growing list of media figures, journalists and news organisations to face Trump’s wrath in the form of lawsuits and personal vendettas.

In July, CBS said The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would go off air in 2026, days after Colbert criticised CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for a $16m settlement in a case with Trump.

ABC News also agreed to pay $15m over inaccurate on-air comments made by an anchor that Trump had been found “liable for raping” writer E Jean Carroll. Trump had, in fact, been found liable for sexual abuse. More recently, Trump is bringing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for their coverage of his relationship with high-flying financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In another Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump seemed to suggest further suspensions of late-night comedians, namely two popular NBC hosts.

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” the president said, referring to Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.

“Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

Democratic Party lawmakers are now pushing to pass a new bill, called the No Political Enemies Act, which they in part credited to Kimmel’s suspension.

The bill aims to deter officials from retaliating against free speech and provides tools for those targeted by the government, according to a legislative summary, though it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Congress.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also called for Carr’s resignation from the FCC in a social media post on Thursday, before railing against the Trump administration in a news conference announcing the bill.

“First, let’s be very clear: Political violence has no place in America,” Schumer said.

“But let’s also be clear: The Trump administration campaign of threats against civil society and free speech … is an assault on everything this country has stood for since the Constitution was signed,” Schumer said.

“There’s an assault on democracy coming out of the White House and their allies, and we see more evidence of it every day,” he said.(Aljazeera)