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Trump says NBC's Kristen Welker will be reported to FCC over endorsement coverage
President Donald Trump said NBC's Kristen Welker will be reported to the FCC for 'rebuke or punishment' after she described his endorsement record as 'mixed' on air. Trump's post on Truth Social disputed the characterization, asserting his endorsements were about 98 percent successful. The threat is part of a broader pattern of tensions between Trump and news outlets, with several organizations having sued the FCC over alleged political retaliation.
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Trump threatens NBC journalist with FCC action
US President Donald Trump on Sunday said NBC's Kristen Welker, host of Meet the Press, will be reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for "rebuke or punishment", according to multiple reports. In a post on Truth Social, Trump took issue with Welker's characterization of his endorsements of political candidates as having "mixed results" in the primaries leading up to November's midterm elections.
"Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC," Trump wrote, as reported by Al Jazeera. The president derided Welker as the "Unpopular 'Hostess' of ... Meet the Fake Press", according to The Guardian. France 24 — English reported that Trump said the results of his endorsements went his way "98 percent to 100 percent of the time." Trump also posted a chart, without attribution, showing 98 percent of his endorsed candidates won their elections, Al Jazeera reported.
The FCC is headed by Brendan Carr, a close Trump associate, France 24 — English reported. Trump said, "I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously," as quoted by France 24 — English and The Guardian. Jerusalem Post, citing Reuters, also reported Trump's statement, noting it was a developing story dated August 30, 2026.
The context of Welker's reporting
Before Sunday's Meet the Press aired, Welker described the record of Trump-endorsed candidates as "mixed" on Washington DC's NBC affiliate, according to The Guardian, which cited CNN media reporter Brian Stelter. A guest analyst on the show later said "the single most important factor in who the Republican nominee will be in [the presidential election of] 2028 will be who Donald Trump endorses," The Guardian reported.
Trump is estimated to have made more than 300 endorsements that resulted in the recipient winning, The Guardian reported. In the election cycle leading up to the midterms, 214 of the 218 House candidates he endorsed won their primaries, including all 24 Republican Senate primaries. In gubernatorial primaries, five of the 21 candidates he endorsed lost, including Mike Lindell, who finished second in Minnesota to state house speaker Lisa Demuth. Minnesota's supreme court on Saturday rejected Lindell's bid for a recount, effectively confirming his 11-percentage-point defeat, The Guardian reported.
Trump nonetheless maintained in an August 23 post, "My Endorsements are stronger than ever," The Guardian reported. He also touted recent primary victories by South Carolina Senate candidate Darline Graham and Oklahoma gubernatorial hopeful Mike Mazzei, and said days earlier that any endorsed candidates who lost faced "impossible" races but had earned his support "out of loyalty," according to The Guardian. On Friday, HBO Max host Bill Maher apologized to Trump for claiming the president was winning "almost none of" his endorsements, after Trump sent him statistics making his case, The Guardian reported.
A history of tensions
Welker hosted the 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Joe Biden and currently hosts NBC's weekly news program Meet the Press, Al Jazeera reported. In June, Trump walked out of an hour-long interview with Welker after being asked about his pledge of "no new wars," according to Al Jazeera and The Guardian. During that interview, Trump said, "Your elections are crooked, and you're crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked and so is ABC and CBS and CNN. You're one-sided crooked networks," before pulling off his microphone and leaving, Al Jazeera reported. He also said, "Let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time," and "You ought to straighten out your press. A country can never be great with a dishonest press," as reported by The Guardian.
The FCC threat comes amid broader tensions between the Trump administration and news outlets. ABC's owner, Disney, sued the FCC, alleging political retaliation over an early license review of eight stations, Al Jazeera reported. The review followed a row after Trump and Melania called on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a joke, Al Jazeera reported. In September 2025, Carr reportedly pressured TV station groups to pre-empt Kimmel's show, and Sinclair and Nexstar did so, The Guardian reported. Trump has won private settlements from ABC and CBS totaling more than $30 million, The Guardian reported.
Trump has also sued The New York Times for $15 billion and The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion, alleging defamation, Al Jazeera reported. A judge threw out the case against The Wall Street Journal, and Trump refiled the case against The New York Times after a judge dismissed the first complaint, Al Jazeera reported. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC over editing of a January 6 clip, Al Jazeera reported.
Several news organizations have filed lawsuits against the FCC arguing political retaliation violates the First Amendment, France 24 — English reported. NBC is licensed by the FCC to operate 11 broadcast stations, The Guardian reported. The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment, France 24 — English and The Guardian reported.
Legal questions over FCC authority
Experts argue the FCC lacks the legal authority to punish broadcasters or reporters for their viewpoints, France 24 — English reported. A 2025 paper by the Yale Journal on Regulation states that the US Supreme Court has confirmed that US law "does not grant the FCC the power to ban controversial speech," France 24 — English reported. Brian Stelter said the FCC "can't punish Welker" because its power is "limited by design," and noted that Carr has been "responsive" to Trump, adding "it's reasonable to think NBC will be targeted next," The Guardian reported.
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
Framing: Trump's threat to report a journalist to a broadcast regulator, highlighting the action against a specific reporter.
Facts Included:
Trump says he will report Kristen Welker to the FCC for 'rebuke or censure'
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump disputed Welker's characterization of his endorsements as having 'mixed results'
Trump posted a chart, without attribution, showing 98 percent of his endorsed candidates won
Kristen Welker hosted the 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Joe Biden
Welker currently hosts NBC's weekly news program 'Meet the Press'
In June, Welker interviewed Trump, which ended in a heated exchange over his claims of election fraud
Trump said 'Your elections are crooked, and you're crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked and so is ABC and CBS and CNN. You're one-sided crooked networks,' before leaving the interview
ABC's owner Disney sued the FCC, alleging political retaliation over an early licence review of eight stations
The FCC review followed Trump and Melania's call to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a joke
Trump filed a $10bn lawsuit against the BBC over editing of a January 6 clip
Trump sued The New York Times for $15bn and The Wall Street Journal for $10bn, alleging defamation
A judge threw out the case against The Wall Street Journal
Trump refiled the case against The New York Times after a judge dismissed the first complaint
The New York Times said FBI agents delivered a subpoena to one of its reporters in February regarding a story on a US Navy SEALs mission in North Korea
The Department of Justice sought cooperation from a journalist for an investigation into a story about US Navy SEALs opening fire on a North Korean target
Reporters Without Borders and other groups have criticized attempts to compel reporters to reveal sources
Framing: Trump threatens to report NBC journalist to the FCC for punishment over endorsement coverage
Facts Included:
President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened a prominent NBC broadcast journalist with possible punishment by US media regulators.
Trump attacked Kristen Welker on Truth Social as the "unpopular 'hostess' of the once great Meet the Press".
Trump said the results of his endorsements went his way 98 percent to 100 percent of the time.
Trump said, "Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment."
Trump said, "Unfortunately, she is not the only one. The Radical Left News is going out of their way to harass, demean, and libel anything 'TRUMP.'"
Trump has sued the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Trump ordered federal funding slashed for public media.
The FCC is headed by a close Trump associate, Brendan Carr.
Trump said, "I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously."
Several news organizations have filed lawsuits against the FCC arguing political retaliation violates the First Amendment.
In June the president abruptly cut short an interview with Welker following a tense exchange.
NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Experts argue the FCC lacks the legal authority to punish broadcasters for their viewpoints.
A 2025 paper by the Yale Journal on Regulation states the US Supreme Court has confirmed that US law "does not grant the FCC the power to ban controversial speech."
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimUS President Donald Trump said NBC's Kristen Welker will be reported to the FCC for 'rebuke or punishment' in a Sunday Truth Social post.
ClaimIn June, Welker had a one-on-one interview with Trump that ended in a heated exchange as she pressed him on his claims of Democratic cheating in the 2020 election.
ClaimDuring the June interview, Trump said 'Your elections are crooked, and you're crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked and so is ABC and CBS and CNN. You're one-sided crooked networks.'
ClaimABC News's owner, Disney, sued the FCC, saying the agency was conducting an early licence review of eight of the network's stations as retaliation.
ClaimThe FCC review followed a row between ABC and the FCC after Trump and Melania called on the network to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made about her.
ClaimTrump filed a $10bn lawsuit against the BBC, alleging it unfairly edited a clip of him speaking just before his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
ClaimTrump sued The New York Times for $15bn and The Wall Street Journal for $10bn, alleging defamation over reporting on issues such as how he amassed his wealth and his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein.
ClaimIn February, FBI agents delivered a subpoena to a New York Times reporter seeking cooperation for an investigation into a story about a secret US Navy SEALs mission in North Korea that ended with them opening fire on a North Korean boat.
ClaimIn July, the US Department of Justice tried to subpoena three other New York Times journalists after they reported on security concerns with Trump's new Air Force One jet, but withdrew the requests after a federal judge upbraided the tactic.
ClaimReporters at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have been subpoenaed in recent months for national security coverage, including reporting on internal Pentagon warnings about the US-Israel war on Iran.
ClaimIn April, Reporters Without Borders said the US has fallen to a 'historic low' in its annual global press freedom rankings, dropping from 57th to 64th.
ClaimPreceding Trump's comments, Welker described the success record of political candidates whom Trump had endorsed as 'mixed' on Washington DC's NBC affiliate prior to the airing of Sunday's Meet the Press.
ClaimA guest analyst on Sunday's Meet the Press said 'the single most important factor in who the Republican nominee will be in [2028] will be who Donald Trump endorses.'
ClaimIn the election cycle leading up to November's midterms, 214 of the 218 House candidates Trump endorsed won their primaries, including all 24 Republican senate primaries.
ClaimIn gubernatorial primaries, five of the 21 candidates Trump endorsed lost their primaries, including Mike Lindell, who finished a distant second in Minnesota to state house speaker Lisa Demuth.
ClaimTrump said days earlier that any of his endorsed candidates who lost were already faced with 'impossible' races but had earned his support 'out of loyalty'.
ClaimIn June, Trump walked out of an hour-long interview with Welker after being asked about his pledge of 'no new wars' during his successful run for a second presidency.
ClaimIn September 2025, Carr reportedly put pressure on television station groups to pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel's show as punishment for a comment Kimmel made after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
ClaimEarlier in August, ABC sued the FCC, arguing that it was being illegally targeted after being forced to apply early to renew its eight local broadcast licenses.
ClaimABC said in its lawsuit: 'Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.'
ClaimInvolving itself in broadcast outlets' editorial decisions and constitutionally protected speech is beyond the mandate of the FCC, which was established in 1934.
ClaimTrump said on Truth Social: 'Unfortunately, she is not the only one. The Radical Left News is going out of their way to harass, demean, and libel anything TRUMP.'
ClaimIn June the president abruptly cut short an interview with Welker following a tense exchange, during which he grew irritated by her questioning, particularly on the war against Iran.
ClaimAccording to a 2025 paper by the Yale Journal on Regulation, the US Supreme Court has confirmed that US law 'does not grant the FCC the power to ban controversial speech.'