New reports have emerged that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has brought up concerns that the company might have participated in “race and gender-based discrimination.” The same reports state that the FCC might not initiate the process of an early license review.
However, Carr has issued threats against Disney, the owner of ABC and all its broadcast licenses, when he ripped into the company’s diversity programs. The FCC licenses ABC’s broadcast television stations, which operate on publicly owned airwaves. That means if they are found to have engaged in practices that violate those licenses, they could be yanked off those airwaves.
“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr said during an interview with Fox this month. In March 2025, Carr stated that he has had issues with ABC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies for a long time.
According to a report from Breitbart News, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have issued demands for late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel to be given his pink slip after a distasteful joke he cracked about the president’s death, just days before a third assassination attempt on his life took place during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, 2026.
During an episode of his show, Kimmel fantasized about the president’s death, stating that Melania looked like “an expectant widow.” The incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner took place just two days later. A person familiar with how the FCC works told Semafor that the timing of the review was not connected with Kimmel’s most recent controversy.
President Trump addressed the deplorable comments from Kimmel on April 27, 2026, on his social media account, saying, “Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking. He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be.”
“‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.’ A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,” Trump continued.
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“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he concluded. The First Lady also came out swinging for the fences against Kimmel on her X account.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community,” she added.