Trump backs FCC chair’s threat to pull licenses of news outlets over Iran war coverage
US president on social media said he was ‘thrilled’ that Brendan Carr was looking into broadcasters’ licenses
Donald Trump reinforced comments made by Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatening the broadcast licenses of news organizations that report unfavorably on the war in Iran.
In a Truth Social post Sunday night, Trump said he was “thrilled” that Carr was “looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations. They get Billions of Dollars of FREE American Airwaves, and use it to perpetuate LIES …”.
Carr wrote in a post on X on Saturday that broadcasters “that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”
Carr’s comments drew a rebuke from both Democrats and Republicans noting the first amendment protects news organizations from government censorship. Trump’s comments suggest he will widen his campaign against the media.
Trump described Iran as a “master of media manipulation”, noting – correctly – that AI-generated images had flooded the internet, which news organizations are cautiously navigating. But he then claimed that Iran is “working in close coordination with the Fake News Media” in disseminating these images, describing one in which a US aircraft carrier is shown falsely to be burning at sea.
“The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!”
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary and a former Fox News host, lambasted the press at a media availability Friday for what he claimed was unfavorable news coverage. Hegseth barred press photographers from the briefing, reportedly because some photos published of Hegseth have been deemed “unflattering”.
Singling out CNN by name, Hegseth said: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
It is not the first time Trump has threatened broadcasters’ licenses. Trump railed against an ABC News reporter who asked him about the Epstein files last year. “I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong,” Trump replied. “And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that.”
In February, Carr called for broadcasters to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary “by airing patriotic, pro-America content that celebrates the American journey and inspires its citizens by highlighting the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the Trump Administration today”.
'Not our war': U.S. allies balk at Trump's Strait of Hormuz demands
Many European governments expressed reservations Monday about providing military support to reopen the crucial waterway.
LONDON — President Donald Trump has berated and threatened America's NATO allies. Now he wants these same countries to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz — and their response has not exactly been enthusiastic.
"This is not our war, we have not started it," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters Monday.
That appeared to sum up the mood among U.S. allies, with leaders from Berlin to London expressing reservations about Trump's demands and indicating they had no immediate plans to provide military support to reopen the crucial waterway.
Iran effectively closed the trade route in response to the American-Israeli assault launched last month. This sent global oil prices surging and threatened an international economic shock, something economists had warned about before the war began.
Trump called upon "countries of the world that receive oil through the Hormuz Strait" to "take care of that passage," as he put it in a Sunday post on Truth Social. In an interview with the Financial Times the same day he went further, warning that NATO would have a “very bad future” if its members did not help free up the strait.
Though often wary of risking Trump's ire, many European governments have been reluctant to be pulled into the war with Tehran.
Some, such as the leftist government of Spain, outright refused the Hormuz demand.
"Spain will never accept any stopgap measures" to keep the strait open, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said, "because the objective must be for the war to end, and for it to end now."
Japan and Australia said they had no plans to send ships to aid Trump's request.
Even in Italy, whose Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has previously cast herself as something of a Trump-whisperer, the government declined to get involved.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters that "diplomacy needs to prevail."
Others asked for Trump to provide more information.
Europe needed to understand Trump's “strategic goals. What will be the plan?” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said.
In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been criticized by Trump for not taking part in the initial attack on Iran.
Starmer told a news conference Monday he was "working with all of our allies, including our European partners," to "restore the freedom of navigation" as quickly as possible.
"Ultimately, we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability on the market," he said. "That is not a simple task."
But Starmer made it clear that he would not be drawn into “the wider war,” and that any Hormuz mission should be a broader effort — including the U.S. and Gulf states — rather than something for NATO.
There are other proposals on the table, such as top European diplomat Kaja Kallas on Monday floating a similar deal to the one in 2022 that ensured Ukraine could export grain amid Russia's invasion.
But ultimately, European skepticism over Trump's Hormuz demand seemed to stem from their wariness of the war itself.
"The European answer must be: the way to end the problem is to end the war, not to join it," said Sven Biscop, a director at the Egmont Institute, a Belgian think tank. He said the main thing was "not be intimidated by threats on NATO" by Trump.
Asked for comment on the European reaction, the White House directed NBC News to comments made by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who told reporters that these countries should help out because they "are benefiting greatly from the United States military taking out the threat of Iran."
She added that "the president is absolutely right to call on these countries to do more to help the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz so that we can stop this terrorist regime from restricting the free flow of energy."
Despite several ships being bombed as they attempt to cross the strait, Iran denies it has closed the narrow neck of water entirely. After the U.S. and Israel launched the war, it said it would attack vessels from those countries or their allies.
"From our perspective the Strait of Hormuz is open, and only closed to enemies," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on Telegram.
The wrangle over the strait marks the latest point of tension between the Trump administration and Washington's historic friends across the Atlantic.
Last year, the president refused to rule out using military force to seize the Danish autonomous island of Greenland.
He eventually said in January that he would not deploy the military to take Greenland, which sits in a strategic location amid the melting ice floes frequented by Russia and China, and has a wealth of natural resources.
However the damage had already been done, with officials and expert observers across Europe aghast that their most powerful member — which they fought alongside in World War II — would countenance using force against them.
Other presidents, such as President Barack Obama, have urged NATO members to pay more toward their militaries, and their administrations have been frustrated with Europe's perceived reliance on Washington to take care of its postwar defense.
However, none have done so as publicly or brusquely as Trump.
Trump Threatens Treason Charges for Reporters Covering Iran War
Donald Trump is accusing media outlets of committing treason over their Iran war coverage.
On Truth Social Sunday, Trump made a long-winded post accusing Iran of using AI to create fake videos of attacks on U.S. ships and American publications of “false reporting,” calling out The Wall Street Journal by name. In one instance, he cited a fake video of the USS Abraham Lincoln “burning uncontrollably in the ocean.”
“Not only was it not burning, it was not even shot at—Iran knows better than to do that! The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!” Trump ranted. “The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets. The Radical Leftwing Press knows this full well, but continues to go forward with false stories and LIES.”
Trump went on to praise Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr for threatening “the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.” Carr on Saturday threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of local outlets that he determined to be sharing “fake” news.
The president has long attacked media outlets for even the slightest bit of critical coverage against him, but the weaponization of the FCC in his second term adds cause for concern with this post. Under Carr’s tenure, the FCC has attacked multiple TV networks, including NBC, ABC, and CBS, citing various excuses, including DEI and new interpretations of existing statutes.
Trump officials, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, are also lashing out at the media, openly gloating as right-wing ownership gets closer to running CNN. As Trump’s war with Iran continues to go poorly, he will continue to lash out at anyone who points out the obvious. Will this come with an attempt to censor the press?
Trump said he spoke to a former president about bombing Iran. Four denials suggest otherwise.
Trump said twice Monday that he spoke to one of his predecessors about the Iran war and that the former president said he wished he had taken the action Trump did.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that one of his predecessors told him he wished he had been the one to bomb Iran.
It appears he did not speak to any of the four former presidents.
An aide for George W. Bush told NBC News that “they haven’t been in touch,” while an aide to Bill Clinton told NBC News that whoever Trump was referring to was not Clinton.
An Obama aide said “no recent conversations” have taken place between Barack Obama and Trump, and a source familiar with the matter said the former president Trump was referring to was not Joe Biden.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the denials Monday night.
Earlier in the day, Trump claimed twice to have spoken to a former president about Iran.
“I’ve spoken to a certain president — who I like, actually. A past president, former president, he said: ‘I wish I did it. I wish I did.’ But they didn’t do it. I’m doing it. Yeah?” Trump said at a lunch for Kennedy Center board members.
Later in the day, Trump repeated the claim in the Oval Office, saying: “I spoke to one of the former presidents who I actually like.”
“I actually speak to some,” Trump said. “And he said, ‘I wish I did what you did.’”
Asked by a reporter to elaborate on which president he was speaking to, Trump did not specify. He said it wasn’t Bush and then said “I don’t want to say” when he was asked it was Clinton.
“I don’t want to say because a member of a party, a member of a party, they have Trump derangement syndrome, but it’s somebody that happens to like me, and I like that person, who’s a smart person, but that person said, ‘I wish I did it.’ OK, but I don’t want to get into who. I don’t want to get him into trouble,” Trump said.
“You know, it’s interesting. And maybe he’d be proud,” Trump said about the former president. “And I could even ask him that: ‘Would you like me to reveal your name?’”
National Counterterrorism Center director resigns over war in Iran
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent announced Tuesday that he would be resigning from his position due to the war in Iran.
“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” Kent wrote on X.
He said that the U.S. only got into the war in Iran due to massive pressure from Israel and its American lobby.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote on X. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
He concluded by saying it was an honor to serve under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and President Donald Trump.
“May God bless America,” his post concluded.
He also posted a picture of his resignation to Trump letter that said Israeli officials deployed a misinformation campaign to undermine the president's America First platform.
“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to victory,” the letter reads. “That was a lie and the same tactic that the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of men and women.”
Prior to becoming the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent ran for office in Washington state twice in 2022 and 2024.
He is a retired Green Beret and also a Gold Star husband. His first wife Shannon Kent was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in January 2019.
He said he talked to a previous president-they said they didn’t
He said he talked to other countries about sending help for the Straight of Hormuz and they are sending help-they said they are not getting involved.
He called one of the other countries over the weekend and asked if they could send a minesweeper or two. Where are ours, you might ask-Well, all 4 were moved out of the Middle East and sent back to the US. The other country also said no-they aren’t sending any sweepers.
Trump said Iran is calling wilkoff and ready to talk. Iran said they have not called.
Trump Says 'WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!' In Iran War After NATO Rebuff
President Donald Trump said he doesn't need the help of allied nations in the war he started against Iran, just days after begging for help.
"The United States has been informed by most of our NATO 'Allies' that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon," Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday.
On Saturday, Trump bragged about a "decapitated" Iran military while also asking nations for help in taking back the Strait of Hormuz.
"Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated," Trump posted on Truth Social.
And in another post later that day, Trump again made a plea for other nations to help the U.S. and Israel, promising everything will go "smoothly, and well."
"The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well," he wrote. "This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be — It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!"
On Monday, Trump got his answer: Other countries aren't coming to help.
“They should be in here very happily helping us,” Trump told reporters Monday. "They should be jumping to help us because we’ve helped them for years."
Trump's newest childlike strategy is to act like the U.S. has never needed help to begin with.
"Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!" Trump raged in his Tuesday post. "Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!"
Oh what a difference a day makes. When they wouldn't help bail him out of his self inflicted mess he changed his story. The trumpian version of foreign policy.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
