Two words were enough to draw a threat of federal action. President Donald Trump said on August 30, 2026, that he intends to report Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over her description of his record endorsing candidates: “mixed results.”
In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump, 80, mocked Welker and her program. U.S. Senate races, by his count, had gone 100 percent his way lately, with U.S. House races at 98 percent — and, elsewhere in the same post, put his overall rate at 99 percent — before asking how anyone broadcasting on public airwaves could be permitted to say otherwise. “Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” he wrote. A danger to the country was how Trump characterized it, and he added that he hoped FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and the other commissioners would take that seriously.
What Welker Actually Said
Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press” never carried the remark. Journalist Aaron Rupar posted on X on August 30: “Notably, Kristen Welker did not say this on today’s Meet the Press.” Viewers who sat through the whole broadcast made the same point, with one saying, “I just finished watching the entire program. The subject never came up! Kristen said nothing of the sort! Trump is deranged.” The phrase came instead during a live appearance on NBC 4 Washington ahead of Sunday’s broadcast. “He’s going to loom large over these midterms,” Welker told the NBC affiliate. A slate of primary candidates had carried Trump’s endorsement, she went on, and the results had been mixed. Her next example was his latest pick: Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham edged out Rep. Ralph Norman in her August 25 primary runoff and now faces Dr. Annie Andrews — a Trump endorsement win Welker volunteered herself, in the same breath as the phrase he objected to.
“Kristen is one of the best in the business, and we stand by her,” NBC News said. Welker has moderated “Meet the Press” since September 2023, and Trump has attacked her repeatedly over the last two years — even as he has also sat down with her for several interviews.
Welker drew public support on September 1 from actress Lisa Rinna, who reposted on X a message by X user Heather Delaney Reese that read: “Fascism spreads by turning our own institutions against us. It happens when a man with the full power of the presidency tells a journalist she will be ‘reported for rebuke or punishment’ because she stated a FACT he did not like, and then warns every other journalist in the country that they could be next.”
The Numbers Behind the Endorsement Fight
The president’s showing in this year’s Republican primaries has in fact been strong. News accounts citing Ballotpedia credited him with roughly 313 endorsements and a 96 percent success rate as of mid-August. A review of Ballotpedia data published September 1 puts Trump endorsees at a 95.7 percent Republican primary win rate when his endorsements in state and local races such as governor are included. Plenty of those contests, though, were never close, and some of his choices faced no opponent at all. The losses this cycle run past a dozen endorsed candidates, and among them NBC’s own election desk counted six Trump-endorsed contenders for House seats and governorships who went down in primaries earlier this month. Mixed is how other outlets have likewise characterized his recent record.
Among the losses this cycle: Lisa Demuth beat Mike Lindell in Minnesota’s Republican race for governor on August 11, and challenger Charlie Hatcher ousted Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., in his August 6 reelection primary. Earlier in the year, Zach Lahn took Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial primary from Rep. Randy Feenstra on June 2, and Rick Jackson beat Burt Jones in Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial runoff on June 16. His losing gubernatorial picks also included South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, alongside Jones and Lindell. On the winning side were Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany and Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate John James. Coverage of Graham’s victory was almost nonexistent, Trump also grumbled in his post — a claim at odds with the extensive attention her runoff drew from national outlets and across South Carolina. Mike Mazzei, his pick in the Oklahoma governor’s race, prompted the same complaint from him.
Sunday’s targets were not limited to Welker. In a separate message written entirely in capital letters, Trump went after what he termed fake polls, said something needed to be done about them, and declared that the FCC should come to the rescue. His endorsement arithmetic has been a sore point for days. HBO’s “Real Time” had aired Friday, and host Bill Maher said on it that the president texted him charts personally, disputing Maher’s on-air assertion that Trump is losing nearly all of his endorsement races. Maher said he had “overstated it” and that the full picture was “a little more nuanced,” then quipped: “Now, stop texting.”
Carr’s FCC Already Facing a Lawsuit
The threat lands while the FCC is fighting a court case of its own. Disney, ABC’s corporate parent, sued the agency on First Amendment grounds on August 18, 2026, arguing that its regulatory moves amounted to retaliation for the network’s news coverage and other content. The dispute dates to April 2026. Days after Trump demanded that comedian Jimmy Kimmel be fired, an unusual challenge to ABC’s local station licenses came from Carr, who directed the network’s eight owned stations to submit their broadcast licenses for early renewal review, years ahead of schedule. His inquiry into Disney’s diversity practices drove the move, Carr has insisted, and not the Kimmel episode. ABC’s bid for a temporary restraining order was not fast-tracked by U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan, who set a hearing for the week of October 5.
Appointed by Trump, Carr has a history of moving quickly on the president’s complaints about broadcasters. Threats went out to broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war in March 2026, after Trump aired a similar grievance on Truth Social. Comcast, NBC’s parent company, has faced an inquiry from Carr since February 2025 into what he called invidious forms of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) discrimination. The agency is being weaponized and free speech chilled, according to former commission officials from both parties.
Media and legal experts told USA TODAY that FCC action against Welker or NBC is unlikely to succeed. “I just don’t see how they can, at least in good faith. Several other outlets made similar statements about his endorsements and recent upsets in primaries,” Johanna Dunaway, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said on August 31. Characterizing his record as “mixed,” she added, is “neither inaccurate nor malicious.” The commission’s own guidance says it “is barred by law from trying to prevent the broadcast of any point of view,” and while anyone may file a complaint, its consumer complaint center offers no complaint category covering objections to a news report. Trump’s messages amounted to his clearest attempt so far to steer the agency toward acting on his behalf, despite its limited authority over news content.
Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, pushed back, writing that “the FCC has no authority to punish journalists this administration doesn’t like” and calling such threats to press freedom dangerous.
No complaint has been confirmed filed, and as of Tuesday neither Carr nor the commission had responded publicly. Should one ever be lodged, NBC’s answer would be short. Welker never claimed that most of Trump’s picks lose — only that his results have been mixed, a description the network’s own election coverage backs up.
