The Walt Disney Company is bracing for a courtroom showdown with President Trump after reinstating late-night host Jimmy Kimmel — a move that has already triggered threats against the company’s broadcast licenses and new warnings from regulators.
The entertainment giant brought Kimmel back on air Tuesday night after a nearly weeklong suspension for remarks he made on Sept. 15 about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
During the Sept. 15 monlogue, Kimmel falsely asserted that Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah, was part of the “MAGA gang.”
Disney executives had anticipated retaliation from the White House if they sided with Kimmel, two people familiar with the company’s strategy told Bloomberg.
The House of Mouse has consulted with legal experts and came away from those discussions confident that it would fend off any attempt by the Trump administration to suspend its broadcast licenses, according to the Bloomberg report.
Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr have threatened to yank broadcast licenses from Disney-owned local stations and affiliates.
Carr warned station groups that keeping Kimmel on air could jeopardize their licenses.
The FCC boss told a podcast audience last week that it was “past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, ‘We are going to preempt. We are not gonna run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out.’”
Two major affiliate groups — Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group — dropped “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from schedules covering nearly a quarter of the country. Neither has reinstated the program.
Disney meanwhile is seeking regulatory approval for deals involving National Football League media rights and a Hulu–FuboTV merger. The FCC also delayed a decision on Paramount Global’s merger with Skydance Media while Trump pursued a lawsuit against CBS News.
That case ended with CBS canceling Stephen Colbert’s late-night show and agreeing to install a content ombudsman.
Trump, in a social media post Tuesday, called Kimmel “yet another arm of the DNC” and claimed the show amounted to “a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.”
He added, “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
That earlier settlement came last year, when Disney paid $16 million to resolve Trump’s defamation suit against ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Inside Disney, CEO Bob Iger and entertainment co-chair Dana Walden personally handled Kimmel’s suspension and return. The network called the host’s remarks “ill-timed and insensitive.”
Kimmel, a 20-year company veteran, opposed the suspension and later resumed mocking Trump after his reinstatement.
Former Disney chief Michael Eisner publicly blasted Iger’s decision to sideline Kimmel, accusing ABC of bowing to “out-of-control intimidation” from Carr.
“Where has all the leadership gone?” Eisner wrote on X, adding, “suspending indefinitely of Kimmel immediately after the Chairman of the FCC’s aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney Company is yet another example of out-of-control intimidation.”
Carr defended his warnings, saying affiliates had the right to pull programming if they deemed it against the public interest.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) slammed Carr’s comments, comparing them to a mob shakedown, saying on his podcast they sounded “right out of ‘Goodfellas.’”
Industry veterans note that revoking a broadcast license would be a lengthy process subject to court challenge.
“Under our Constitution and the Communications Act, you cannot lose your FCC license for broadcasting something the president doesn’t like,” Preston Padden, a former ABC Television president, told Bloomberg News.
The Post has sought comment from Disney and the White House.
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