On Sunday, August 30, 2026, Trump posted that NBC's Kristen Welker “will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.” Her offense was a remark on NBC's Washington station while promoting “Meet the Press”: “He's had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Senator Darline Graham, of course, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, was successful in her primary battle.”
Trump wrote: “How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.” He closed: “I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously.” Fourteen minutes earlier he had posted, “THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE!”
What Welker said matched her network's reporting. CNN noted that her observation “was backed up by NBC's recent reporting,” which found that “six Trump-backed candidates for House and governor lost their primaries” in August. NBC said, “Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her.” The FCC's own website says the agency “cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view,” CNN reported, adding, “Anyone can file a complaint to the FCC, though there is no option for objecting to a news report.”
A week later the chairman answered. On Fox News's “The Sunday Briefing” on September 6, Carr was asked about the threat against Welker: “I think President Trump is over the target, and we're looking at a lot of actions.” He said the FCC “may put guidance out soon to remind broadcasters about their obligations with respect to not airing fake polls, particularly if they're done to suppress people heading into the fall.” The commission's lone Democrat, Anna Gomez: “As I've said many times, the FCC has no authority to punish journalists this administration doesn't like.”
It fits a pattern CNN laid out: in March Carr threatened broadcasters over their Iran war coverage after Trump complained on Truth Social, and in April he opened an unusual challenge to ABC's local station licenses a day after Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel's firing. See Trump's FCC Chairman Demands 'Pro-America Programming,' Declares 'Fake News' Loses Legal Protections, and Moves to Eliminate Media Ownership Caps. No action against Welker or NBC has been reported.