Trump Calls for FCC Action Against NBC's Kristen Welker Over Local TV Remarks
President Donald Trump said on Sunday, August 30, 2026, that NBC News anchor Kristen Welker should be "reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment" over remarks she made about Republican candidates he backed in the midterm elections.
Trump made the call via his Truth Social account, accusing Welker of a "purposeful inaccuracy" and writing that "she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment" (New York Post). He also called her "the Unpopular Hostess of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press" (Variety).
The remarks that angered Trump were not made during the actual broadcast of "Meet the Press." Welker said them during a local segment previewing her program on NBC's Washington, D.C. station, WRC. In that segment, Welker said Trump had experienced "mixed results" with some of his endorsed Republican candidates losing in primaries, while also saying Trump would "loom large over these midterms" (Variety).
Welker's assessment had some basis in primary results. Trump-backed candidates Randy Feenstra, running for the Iowa governor's seat, and Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO running in Minnesota's gubernatorial race, both lost their primaries. Senator Darline Graham, who filled in on an interim basis for her late brother, former South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, won a primary for the Senate seat in South Carolina (Variety).
The FCC, the U.S. government agency that regulates broadcast television, cannot directly punish individual journalists. It can, however, take action against the company that owns the station and the broader news operation. The owner of WRC and NBC News is NBCUniversal, currently a unit of Comcast that is slated to be spun off from its parent company (Variety).
NBC News did not respond immediately to a query seeking comment about Trump's call for FCC action against Welker (Variety).
Trump's call comes amid a period of heightened FCC activity under his administration and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The agency has ordered Disney to file for licence renewals for ABC's eight owned-and-operated stations years ahead of schedule, part of a legal tangle with Walt Disney Co. and ABC. Disney said in filings that its renewal applications were made "under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order." Disney and ABC have also filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the FCC is in violation of the First Amendment (Variety).
The FCC has also probed whether ABC's daytime talk show "The View" violated so-called "equal-time" election laws — rules requiring broadcasters to give comparable airtime to opposing political candidates — after James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas, appeared on the show in February. In January, the FCC issued new guidance that late-night and daytime hosts needed to give equal time to political candidates from various parties (Variety).
Trump has sat for many interviews with NBC News and has made a handful of appearances on "Meet the Press" to speak with Welker directly (Variety).
For the staff at NBC News and NBCUniversal, the practical question is whether an FCC complaint materialises and what form it takes. The agency's recent actions against Disney and ABC suggest that licence-related pressure is a tool the current FCC is willing to use — and that broadcasters are willing to challenge in court.
