WASHINGTON — President Trump raged at "Meet the Press" anchor Kristen Welker Sunday for casting aspersions on his endorsement record — saying she should be reprimanded by the FCC.
Page A2From§Eachthe supper edition — 30 August 2026
Trump asks FCC to punish NBC reporter for citing his own endorsement record
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened here, because the coverage has been — well, it's been coverage, which is sort of the problem, isn't it. The President asked the FCC to 'rebuke or punish' a reporter for stating his endorsement record. That's not censorship, that's accountability. Broadcasters have obligations. The public airwaves are a privilege, not a — actually, they are a right, I said that backwards, scratch that.
Kristen Welker cited a number. The President felt the number needed context, and he took that need for context directly to the body that licenses her employer's affiliates. That's not intimidation, that's — okay, it is a little bit intimidation, structurally, but it's legal intimidation, which is a different category, there's a whole framework for it.…
…(cont) Look, every administration has had friction with the press. That's normal. What's not normal is — well, actually, referring a specific correspondent to a licensing agency over a specific number is somewhat new as a formal ask, repeated across two separate outlets covering the same call for punishment on the same day. But the repetition just shows how seriously he takes the accuracy issue. It's not a pattern, it's diligence.
And I want to push back on the idea that this chills anybody. Reporters ask questions every day. They'll keep asking questions. Some of them will just be doing it with the knowledge that a number he doesn't like goes straight to the agency that decides whether their station keeps its license. That's not a threat, that's — that's context, that's just how healthy institutions maintain standards, I don't know why that sounds bad when I say it out loud.
The bottom line the record wants you to take away is that Kristen Welker was wrong about the endorsement record, or if she wasn't wrong, that being right isn't a defense, or — hold on, that's actually the whole complaint right there, isn't it. Being right isn't a defense. I need to stop talking now. The agency will review the complaint through its normal process, which is either reassuring or the entire point, and I've genuinely lost track of which one I'm supposed to be arguing.
“He didn't sue her, he didn't fact-check her, he called the federal agency that can pull NBC's broadcast license — over a true number. That's not thin skin, that's a guy showing you exactly which lever he reaches for first.”
“This is about standards, not retaliation — the FCC reviews complaints like this routinely, it's oversight, it's not like the President personally asked for punishment by name — okay, he did, but that's still just routine.”
The receipts
President Donald Trump announced that he was reporting NBC News’s Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission for “rebuke and punishment” over comments she made about his endorsement record. In a Sunday post on Truth Social…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.