Mary Trump, estranged niece of President Donald Trump, warned of a potential “domino effect” following the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel over his remarks on the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek the suspension “has nothing to do with free speech.”
Newsweek reached out to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Kirk, the late 31-year-old conservative activist, was fatally shot during a speech at Utah Valley University on September 10 during his “American Comeback Tour,” and 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is in custody, charged with aggravated murder and other offenses. Kirk was a vocal supporter of Trump and played a key role in organizing young Republican voters.
Following a monologue Kimmel made about Kirk, FCC Commission Chair Brendon Carr warned that it was “very, very serious for Disney.”
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Nexstar, which owns ABC affiliate stations, announced hours later it would not air Kimmel’s show, and ABC announced the suspension later that day. Carr’s remarks have sparked accusations that the FCC pressured ABC and Disney to suspend Kimmel over his remarks amid ongoing concerns from both Democrats and Republicans about cancel culture and government censorship.
What To Know
Author Mary Trump addressed the suspension of Kimmel in a Substack post on Friday. She criticized “corporate media” for the apparent decision to “capitulate to this petty tyrant who is so thin-skinned he can’t handle some jokes a handful of talk show hosts make at his expense.”
“Brendan Carr, of course, is yet another sycophantic hack who is happy to take a hatchet to Americans’ rights to free speech in service to Donald Trump’s pathetically fragile ego. The Trump regime’s descent into full-blown authoritarianism is frightening, but it’s not surprising,” she wrote.
She pointed to remarks by journalist Jake Tapper, who tied Nexstar’s decision not to air Kimmel’s show to its efforts to purchase TEGNA. A rule mandates that a company cannot have stations that reach 39 percent of U.S. households, so this merger would need FCC approval. While Tapper and others have floated the theory, Nexstar has not said the decision to pull Kimmel had anything to do with the merger.
Mary Trump warned that she believes this is a “domino effect” that will continue “unless somebody does something.”
“But again, none of this should surprise us. This has been in the works for a very long time, and we can’t expect corporate media to stand up, not because they’re weak or terrified, but because they’re complicit in all of this,” Mary Trump wrote.
Nexstar previously addressed this in a statement to Newsweek, writing, “The decision to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision.”
The president’s estranged niece also wrote that she believes “Americans across the country are starting to wake up to just how egregiously corrupt all of this is.” She added the outrage is not just about Kimmel.
“It’s about a growing movement on the right to suppress opposition of all kinds. We’re seeing social media backlash, members of Congress, and ordinary people speaking out against members of the Trump regime. More and more Americans understand there needs to be a reckoning,” she wrote.
Why Was Jimmy Kimmel’s Show Pulled Off the Air?
Kimmel’s suspension came after remarks he made in a recent monologue after Kirk’s death.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on his Jimmy Kimmel Live! broadcast.
Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in a statement Wednesday that these remarks were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse” and that continuing to give Kimmel a platform “is simply not in the public interest at the current time.”
What People Are Saying
Jackson also told Newsweek: “This has nothing to do with free speech – low-ratings loser Jimmy Kimmel is free to make whatever bad jokes he wants, but a private company is under no obligation to lose money producing an unpopular show. Kimmel’s ratings have declined over 63% since his show moved to its current timeslot and he has lost over 43% of his total audience since President Trump returned to office. Jimmy Kimmel’s terrible product isn’t a free speech problem; it’s a talent problem. He is welcome to go start a Substack like all the other low-ratings losers!”
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said during a podcast appearance on Friday: “If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”
Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner at the FCC, posted to X: “An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control. This Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, posted to X: “First Colbert, now Kimmel. Last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump’s approval. Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy. It sure looks like giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism.”
What Happens Next