U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked as he lashed out at one of the network’s reporters who asked him why he has chosen not to release the government’s files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I think you are a terrible reporter,” Trump said in the Oval Office, saying he took issue with the ABC News journalist’s “attitude.”
“People are wise to your hoax,” the president said. “Your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. And I’ll tell you something … I think the license should be taken away from ABC. Because your news is so fake and so wrong.”
“We have a great commissioner … who should look at that,” he added, apparently referring to Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr.
In September, Carr threatened ABC’s license over remarks that one of the network’s late-night talk show hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said Carr, whose agency controls media companies’ broadcast licenses, in a podcast interview. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Hours later, ABC and Nexstar Media Group, which hosts ABC-affiliated local stations, said they were indefinitely pre-empting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The show returned to air about a week later following waves of backlash against ABC and its parent Disney.
Trump’s angry remarks Tuesday came shortly before the House of Representatives was set to vote on a bill to compel the Department of Justice to release all of its records on the deceased financier.
Trump has railed against Democrats over their focus on the Epstein files, calling the matter a “hoax” and urging his allies to drop the matter. Trump and Epstein were friends, but had a falling out years before Epstein’s 2019 death while in jail on federal sex trafficking charges.
But the president has been unable to shake off his links to the sex offender — which grew more visible last week, when Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails showing Epstein discussing Trump. In one email from 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls.”
On Sunday night, as the Epstein bill’s chances of passage appeared to rise, Trump suddenly reversed course and urged his GOP allies to support the measure.
But Trump does not need to wait for Congress to pass a bill; he could order the DOJ to release more Epstein files unilaterally, news outlets have reported.
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