Trump says his negative media coverage is ‘illegal’

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Sept 19 bashed US media coverage that he claimed was unduly negative and therefore “illegal”, stoking a debate over free speech following the suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show by ABC.

“They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad... I think it’s really illegal, personally,” Mr Trump, who has sued multiple major news organisations in 2025, told reporters gathered in the Oval Office.

The 79-year-old Republican, an avid television watcher, focused his diatribe chiefly on US television networks, reiterating a claim that coverage of him and his administration is “97 per cent bad”.

He also defended Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head Brendan Carr, whose threats against broadcasters have sparked a national debate over free speech and caused some unease even among Republicans.

Mr Carr on Sept 17 criticised

Mr Kimmel’s remarks on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk

and threatened broadcasters that carry his show with possible sanctions.

Hours later, ABC announced Mr Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely.

On Sept 19, Mr Trump called Mr Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage”.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a close Trump ally, meanwhile, said he believed it was dangerous for a government to put itself in a position to say what speech it may or may not like.

Commenting on Mr Carr’s threat to fine broadcasters or pull their licences over the content of their shows, Mr Cruz referenced a Martin Scorsese gangster movie.

“I got to say that’s right out of Goodfellas,” Mr Cruz said. “That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it.’”

Mr Trump himself faced a setback in his personal anti-media crusade, with a federal judge issuing a scathing ruling and tossing out his US$15 billion (S$19.3 billion) defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. AFP