Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has placed himself at odds with the Trump administration in the name of free speech, voicing his negative opinion on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) investigation into Disney and ABC after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about President Donald Trump dying just days before a gunman attempted to assassinate him last weekend.
The FCC, led by Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr, moved to speed up the renewal process for the broadcast licenses for Disney’s eight ABC-owned local television stations right after Kimmel joked that First Lady Melania Trump looks like an “expectant widow” during his parody “White House Correspondents’ Dinner” monologue that aired last Thursday:
Just two days later, suspected gunman Cole Tomas Allen of California allegedly crashed the real White House Correspondents’ Dinner in an attempt to take the lives of Trump administration officials — “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” according to his manifesto.
President Trump responded to Kimmel’s untimely joke on Monday, writing on Truth Social that he made a “despicable call to violence” and should be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Melania reacted to Kimmel’s remarks as well, writing on X that the television host “shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” the first lady wrote. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?”
The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) also filed a complaint with the FCC on Monday, arguing that the joke “raise[s] serious concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence.”
In its order issued on Tuesday, the FCC stated that it was calling in ABC’s licenses for an ahead-of-schedule review due to an investigation over potential violations of the commission’s anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The licenses for those eight stations were not due for renewal until at least 2028, with some not due until 2031, according to Variety.
Cruz told Punchbowl News later on Tuesday, “It is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police.”
While an FCC spokesperson said the early renewal order “is based on a long-running FCC investigation into Disney’s DEI conduct, not any speech,” the timing has made many believe that it has to do with Kimmel’s inflammatory words.
Kimmel defended his remarks on the first couple during his Monday episode, calling it “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.”
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” he added. “And they know that.”
Kimmel continued, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” before telling Melania that a “great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
A Disney spokesperson addressed the FCC’s order in a Tuesday statement obtained by Variety, saying in part, “We are confident [ABC and its stations’] record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”
This has not been the first time that Cruz has clashed with Trump’s FCC over Kimmel, with the Texas senator accusing Carr of using “dangerous as hell” tactics when he appeared to push for the removal of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host falsely claimed that the accused Charlie Kirk assassin, Tyler Robinson, was “MAGA.”
Days after Kirk’s September 10, 2025 murder, Carr said that Disney “can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
“These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” he threatened.
Cruz compared Carr’s words to the script from mafia crime film Goodfellas on his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
“That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it,’” the senator said, arguing that it would be “unbelievably dangerous” for the government to try to block speech.
During a December 2025 Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on the FCC, Cruz said he agreed with Carr that “Jimmy Kimmel is angry, overtly partisan, and profoundly unfunny,” but argued that the government cannot “force private entities to take actions that the government cannot take directly.”
“Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills protected speech,” Cruz added.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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