I didn’t have plans to write about the latest Jimmy Kimmel saga. I thought my colleagues, Scott Pinsker, Catherine Salgado, and Matt Margolis did more than a fine job on that story, and there was really nothing left to say. But then I saw something where the Trump administration sort of pulled a thread from that situation, and it’s at least indirectly tied to another situation—and now the whole thing is unraveling.
Ever since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he and his administration have not wasted a minute trying to implement an agenda that is even larger and more ambitious than the one he laid out on the campaign trail in 2024. Most politicians over-promise and under-deliver. Trump has done the opposite.
The latest example of this comes to us courtesy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which announced on April 28 that it is moving up its review of the ABC network’s eight local broadcasting licenses over the network’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.
On March 27, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr initially sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger notifying him that the FCC was investigating the company (Disney and ABC) to determine if it was in violation of the FCC’s own equal employment opportunity regulations. Common sense will tell you that when you replace “equal” with “equity” you will have problems, and that’s what they’re looking at.
Keep in mind that this was months before the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September and the Jimmy Kimmel drama that followed.
Now, just recently, David J. Brown, the chief of the video division at the Federal Communications Commission’s media bureau, sent a notification memo to The Walt Disney Company that said: “Specifically, FCC rules provide that whenever the FCC regards an application for a renewal of a license as essential to the proper conduct of an investigation, the FCC has the authority to call the broadcaster’s licenses in for early renewal. Doing so both allows the FCC to conduct its ongoing investigation and enables the FCC to ensure that the broadcaster has been meeting its public interest obligations more broadly…The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time, under the Communications Act’s public interest standard is essential within the meaning of agency regulations.”
The ABC stations in question were on the schedule for license renewal in the 2028-2031 window. The FCC’s decision now requires the ABC stations to file for renewal by May 28 of this year.
It’s important to understand that the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t regulate networks directly; their content is carried by third-party local broadcasters that use the public airwaves, which the FCC does regulate. American Broadcasting Company owns eight local television stations that are within the FCC’s jurisdiction: WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, KTRK-TV Houston, KGO-TV San Francisco, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham, and KFSN-TV Fresno.
Don’t get distracted by the small number. American Broadcasting Company has content agreements with many other channels. Each of these stations is huge in its market, and their markets are the largest in the country. When ABC sells advertising to its sponsors, it’s counting on these stations to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Plus, if even one station has regulatory issues with the Federal Communications Commission, that just makes everything more difficult.
In response to the FCC’s notification on the expedited review, Disney issued a statement that said, “ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, blah, blah, blah.…Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”
Enter drama queen Jimmy Kimmel
When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, it was about six months after the FCC launched its DEI investigation of Disney/ABC. That was when “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel decided to use his monologue on air to blame MAGA for the assassination.
Never forget when Jimmy Kimmel lied and claimed Charlie Kirk’s assassın was MAGA. pic.twitter.com/vvFZpr8eWO
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) April 27, 2026
That set off an uproar that temporarily took Kimmel off the air. Then, in true drama-queen fashion, Jimmy Kimmel wrapped his soulless behavior in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, rallied allies throughout the media and entertainment business, and got ABC/Disney to cave, letting him back on the air.
After that he was even more emboldened to attack Trump relentlessly and tastelessly.
That brings us to this latest assassination attempt on Trump and Kimmel’s ill-timed, truly atrocious joke at the expense of First Lady Melania Trump.
Jimmy Kimmel delivered a fake White House Correspondents Dinner speech, saying “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” pic.twitter.com/o4a59eYnZl
— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) April 26, 2026
What followed were calls for Kimmel’s firing from, understandably, none other than the first lady and the president.
Now, with the FCC pushing up its review of the eight ABC-owned TV stations, many assume these things are all related.
There are two ways to look at this if you’re smart, and either way you’ll end up in the same place. The first way to see it is that the two situations are unrelated. Carr and the Federal Communications Commission are expediting the review process because they have good reason to believe a sense of urgency is needed to correct a deplorable DEI situation at Disney/ABC. And this has nothing to do with Jimmy Kimmel.
If that is the case, then Disney/ABC have only themselves to blame. They knew the Biden administration was gone, and most companies ditched their DEI programs accordingly. Disney/ABC took a risk and did not follow suit like the others. Now they face the consequences.
The other way to look at it is that, yes, the two situations are related. Carr is a Donald Trump appointee to the Federal Communications Commission. It’s not far-fetched to imagine Trump could leverage his power and influence as president to apply some pressure to Disney/ABC. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a president did something like that. In fact, every president has used his position accordingly if he felt particularly disrespected. That’s something Jimmy Kimmel has been fully aware of as he’s drawn attention to himself by attacking Trump.
When Joe Biden was president, he threatened to fire half the country if they did not follow his orders to take an experimental vaccine that didn’t work.
So, what if the FCC is doing both: going after Disney/ABC for DEI issues, and going after Disney/ABC because the company can’t police itself or its own rogue late-night host?
Can you blame Trump? What if you were president and this happened to you? What if, on at least three occasions in the span of just a year and a half, a gunman had gotten dangerously close to killing you?
Your wife has had to live through this — and so much more. She knows about the daily death threats you receive. As your wife, she’s also aware of the plots against you that the public will never know. She lives with the constant, real risk that she could lose you at any second.
Then this second-rate TV host makes a joke, seemingly wishing death on you, in the same context and on the same evening that yet another attempt is made on your life. Your wife not only watched it, but she, too, had to crawl to safety.
Would you blame Trump for doing to ABC what it should have done to Kimmel a while back? Kimmel is not untouchable. Some of his antics have been more than enough to get him fired. His ratings have been enough to get him fired.
This is not a First Amendment issue. Companies have every right to fire rogue employees when their tastelessness knows no bounds. The only reason Kimmel is still working is because Disney/ABC has condoned his behavior and may even endorse it.
If that’s the case, the time for playing by the “queen’s rules” has passed. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”
Disney/ABC and Kimmel have done their best to destroy Trump politically. A good case can be made that Kimmel’s rhetoric only contributes to the current atmosphere where some see violence against this sitting president as acceptable. The fact that Disney/ABC gives Kimmel the platform is on them. Trump is still standing. His enemies have not killed him. I’d argue that for the president to come down hard on Disney/ABC is an act of self-defense.
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