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Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr (Donald Trump) / Inside the MagicThe ever-simmering feud between The Walt Disney Company and Donald Trump boiled over this week after an ABC News reporter asked Trump a question about the Epstein Files and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, a question about the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi during an Oval Office press conference earlier this week.
Mary Bruce of ABC News asked Trump why he had not unilaterally ordered the release of the Epstein Files and followed that up with a question about the appropriateness of Trump and the President doing business in Saudi Arabia while he’s in office.
However, before Trump could answer, she turned her attention to bin Salman, saying, “Your Royal Highness, U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office…” Trump interrupted before bin Salman could answer, calling Bruce a “terrible reporter” and a “terrible person.”
The berating from Trump didn’t stop there. Trump said that ABC was a “crappy company” and that its broadcasting license should be taken away.
The White House then escalated the feud last night by posting on its website that ABC had a “rich tradition of peddling lies.” The lengthy post continued by saying that “ABC is not journalism–it’s a Democrat spin operation masquerading as a broadcast network.” Included in the post was also what the White House President considered a timeline of alleged wrongs against the President, including Disney’s $16 million settlement over George Stephanopoulos’ remarks.
As if that wasn’t enough, Trump took to his Truth Social account to slam Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host ripped Trump in his monologue for inviting bin Salman into the Oval Office. Trump again called for ABC to remove Kimmel from the air and encouraged ABC affiliate owners to boycott the show.
Kimmel called the meeting between Trump and bin Salman “cartoonishly evil” in his monologue. This comes just weeks after Kimmel was removed from ABC over his remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk. Disney quickly reinstated him, but Sinclair Broadcasting and Nextstar, the two largest owners of ABC affiliate stations, kept Kimmel off the air even after ABC reinstated him.
For its part, neither ABC nor Disney has responded to Trump’s most recent comments about its broadcasting license. Unlike during the Kimmel affair, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has yet to weigh in on ABC’s license.
However, Carr did announce that the FCC was investigating the relationship between affiliate stations and the broadcast station, which could have a significant impact on ABC and its affiliates, most of which are owned by other companies.
For now, ABC is still broadcasting, but not for long if Trump gets his wishes.
What do you think of the President trying to get ABC off the air for asking a question at a press conference? Let us know in the comments.