President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against broadcast media, saying he will report NBC anchor Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission for a “rebuke or punishment.”
Trump’s anger was directed at remarks Welker made during an appearance on Washington, D.C., affiliate WRC-TV, where she described his midterm endorsement results as yielding “mixed results” in recent Republican primaries.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to attack Welker as the “unpopular ‘hostess’ of the once great Meet the Press,” insisting his endorsements succeeded 98 percent to 100 percent of the time.
He attached statistics he said showed a 98.35 percent success rate for his endorsed House and Senate candidates in 2026 primaries, citing wins by Darline Graham in South Carolina’s Senate primary and Mike Mazzei in Oklahoma’s gubernatorial primary.
Trump described the FCC as the agency “which assigns and oversees licenses for radio and television broadcast frequencies,” and said Welker’s remarks constituted a “purposeful inaccuracy” warranting regulatory action.
He concluded the post by stating: “I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously.”
In a separate post, Trump complained about “fake polls” and wrote “something must be done about it,” adding, “FCC to the rescue!” in what critics described as his most explicit effort yet to direct the agency against specific journalists.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee and close ally, did not respond to requests for comment on whether the commission would act on Trump’s demands.
NBC News issued a statement defending the anchor, saying Welker “is one of the best in the business and we stand by her.”
The dispute also surfaced on HBO’s Real Time, where host Bill Maher said Trump personally texted him charts after Maher claimed the president was “winning almost none” of his endorsements, with Maher conceding: “It’s a little more nuanced, but yes, I overstated it.”
Relations between Trump and Welker have been strained for months, with the president abruptly cutting short an interview with her in June following a tense exchange over the war against Iran.
The FCC is also currently investigating NBC parent Comcast’s relationships with its local broadcast TV affiliates, as part of a broader series of probes into major U.S. broadcasters.
ABC and its parent company Disney have already sued the FCC to block an early review of licenses for eight ABC stations, arguing the Trump administration is using regulatory pressure to punish the network over its broadcast content.
The FCC maintains it is prohibited from censorship and does not formally investigate differences of opinion over news reporting, though critics warn that the threat of license revocation can pressure broadcasters into softening editorial decisions.
