In late July, following his $16 million settlement win against CBS, President Donald Trump used Truth Social to level fierce threats at NBC and ABC.
He slammed NBC for a nearly 28% drop in viewership, attacked management, and accused ABC of dishonest reporting, stating that their licenses “could, and should, be revoked.”
In his posts, Trump celebrated the CBS settlement as another victory over “Fake News Media” and warned that networks like NBC, ABC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, and others are now “ON NOTICE” and that their “deceit” will no longer be tolerated.
In his first post on Saturday, July 26, Trump criticized NBC’s parent company Comcast, deliberately misspelling it as “Concast” in what appeared to be a reference to the word “con.”
The president’s second post on Saturday contained more explicit threats against the networks’ broadcasting rights. Trump declared that “Networks aren’t allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party.” He expressed his opinion that the situation had become so outrageous that their licenses could and should be revoked.
He conspicuously spared Fox News, widely seen as a pro‑Trump outlet. The posts came amid heightened tensions with legacy media and followed his earlier comments claiming late-night hosts such as Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon might be next in a wave of programming changes.
Back in May, Trump threatened to sue ABC News again over the network’s coverage of his $400 million jet gift from Qatar’s royal family. The president complained on his Truth Social platform about ABC’s reporting, referencing his previous $15 million settlement with the Disney-owned network from December over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Trump warned that ABC must not report that Qatar is giving him a free Boeing 747 airplane, claiming instead that the country is donating the plane to the United States Air Force and Defense Department. The president argued that this arrangement would save American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, though reports indicate the cost of retrofitting the plane to serve as presidential transport could reach $1 billion.
The president’s social media activity has intensified significantly during his second term, with analysis showing he posts to Truth Social an average of 17 times per day. Between January 20 and early June, Trump made more than 2,200 posts and reposts on the platform, totaling over 2,100 original posts in his first 100 days in office.
His posting frequency represents more than triple the number of posts he made to Twitter during the same period in his first term. The posts range from mundane endorsements of Republican candidates to holiday messages that transform into lengthy screeds against perceived enemies. On Memorial Day, Trump posted a 172-word, all-caps rant that began with holiday greetings but quickly devolved into attacks on political opponents.
Trump initiated a high‑stakes $10 billion defamation lawsuit in mid‑July 2025 against The Wall Street Journal, its parent companies Dow Jones and News Corp, two Journal reporters, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He alleges that a story about a sexually suggestive birthday note attributed to him and included in a Jeffrey Epstein tribute book was false and defamatory. The case was filed in federal court in Miami, naming Murdoch and others as defendants, and claims “overwhelming” financial and reputational harm. Trump has denied the allegations and said negotiations to settle are underway; he also asked the court to expedite Murdoch’s deposition.
Earlier, in July 2025, Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News and its parent company Paramount—filed in late 2024 over a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris—was settled for $16 million, funded to his future presidential library. As part of the deal, Paramount agreed to release full transcripts of future presidential candidate interviews but did not admit wrongdoing.
In December 2024, Trump reached a $15 million defamation settlement with ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos over an interview in which they falsely implied he had been found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll. The agreement also included $1 million toward Trump’s legal fees and an on‑air apology statement from ABC expressing regret for the mischaracterization.
Additionally, Trump has threatened to sue major outlets like The New York Times and CNN over their reporting on a 2025 U.S. strike in Iran. He demanded retractions and claimed their coverage was “false,” “defamatory,” and harmful to his reputation. Neither outlet acceded to his demands; both rejected his characterization, asserting the reporting accurately reflected intelligence assessments.
Beyond these high‑profile media suits, legal experts note that in early 2025 Trump faced lawsuits from NPR, PBS, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These cases pertain to his May 2025 executive order to cut federal funding for those public media organizations, which they challenged on First Amendment and statutory grounds.
Taken together, these legal actions mark an aggressive escalation in Trump’s use of litigation as a tool against media organizations: suing, settling, and threatening networks and publishers across ideological lines. Analysts warn the strategy may suppress critical reporting through intimidation or financial pressure—even when legal claims are weak or dismissed in court.
Trump continues to issue such threats through his preferred communication channel, demonstrating how Truth Social has become his primary tool for governance and political messaging during his second term.
