“I think the license should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake.”
The promise
On November 18, 2025, Trump attacked ABC News during an exchange with reporters and said he thought ABC’s license should be taken away. The remark followed questions about the Epstein files and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump argued that ABC was overwhelmingly negative toward him and suggested the FCC chairman should look at the network. This was more of a threat than a normal policy promise, but it is trackable because it involves possible government retaliation against a media organization. The statement is legally problematic because U.S. broadcast licensing applies to local stations, not a national network in the simple way Trump described. It also raises First Amendment concerns if based on viewpoint or unfavorable coverage. There is no credible path for a president to revoke a network’s license merely because he dislikes its reporting. Since the promise is structurally and legally unrealistic as stated, it should be marked broken rather than in work. If later regulatory harassment occurs, it can be tracked separately as an action, but the license-revocation claim itself is not a realistic promise.
