In July, after securing a $16 million settlement from CBS, President Donald Trump used Truth Social to issue stern warnings to NBC and ABC.
He criticized NBC for a nearly 28 percent decline in viewership, criticized the leadership, and accused ABC of inaccurate reporting, suggesting that their licenses “could, and should, be revoked.”
In his posts, Trump referred to the CBS settlement as a triumph over “Fake News Media” and cautioned that media outlets like NBC, ABC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and CNN are now “ON NOTICE” and that their “deceit” will no longer be accepted.
On Saturday, July 26, Trump targeted NBC’s parent company Comcast, intentionally misspelling it as “Concast,” seemingly alluding to the word “con.”
In a subsequent post, Trump issued direct threats about the networks’ broadcasting licenses. He stated that “Networks aren’t allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party.” He expressed the view that the situation had become so egregious that their licenses could and should be revoked.
Fox News, often seen as supportive of Trump, was notably excluded from these remarks. The posts came amid escalating tensions with traditional media and followed his previous comments suggesting late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon might be impacted by upcoming programming changes.
Earlier in May, Trump threatened legal action against ABC News over its coverage of his $400 million jet donation from Qatar’s royal family. He criticized ABC’s reporting on Truth Social, recalling his earlier $15 million settlement with the network in December concerning comments by anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Trump emphasized that ABC must not report that Qatar is giving him a free Boeing 747 airplane, asserting instead that the plane is being donated to the United States Air Force and Defense Department. He argued that this would save American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, despite reports indicating that retrofitting the plane for presidential use could cost $1 billion.
Trump’s social media activity has significantly increased during his second term, with analysis showing an average of 17 posts per day on Truth Social. From January 20 to early June, Trump made over 2,200 posts and reposts on the platform, with more than 2,100 original posts in his first 100 days in office.
His posting frequency is more than three times the number of posts he made to Twitter during the same timeframe in his first term. The posts vary from endorsements of Republican candidates to holiday messages that shift into extended critiques of perceived adversaries. On Memorial Day, Trump posted a 172-word, all-caps message beginning with holiday greetings but quickly transitioning to attacks on political rivals.
In mid-July 2025, Trump initiated a high-stakes $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, its parent companies Dow Jones and News Corp, two Journal reporters, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He claims that a story involving a sexually suggestive birthday note attributed to him in a Jeffrey Epstein tribute book was false and defamatory. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami, Florida, naming Murdoch and others as defendants, and alleges “overwhelming” financial and reputational harm. Trump has denied the allegations and indicated that settlement negotiations are ongoing; he also requested the court expedite Murdoch’s deposition.
Earlier, in July 2025, Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News and its parent company Paramount, filed in late 2024 over a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, was settled for $16 million, allocated to his future presidential library. As part of the agreement, Paramount consented to release full transcripts of future presidential candidate interviews but did not admit any wrongdoing.
In December 2024, Trump reached a $15 million defamation settlement with ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos over an interview suggesting he had been found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll. The settlement included $1 million for Trump’s legal fees and an on-air apology from ABC expressing regret for the mischaracterization.
In addition, Trump has threatened to sue major outlets like The New York Times and CNN over their reporting on a 2025 U.S. strike in Iran. He demanded retractions, claiming their coverage was “false,” “defamatory,” and damaging to his reputation. Neither outlet complied with his demands; both rejected his characterization, maintaining that the reporting accurately reflected intelligence assessments.
Beyond these high-profile media suits, legal experts note that in early 2025 Trump faced lawsuits from NPR, PBS, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These cases challenge his May 2025 executive order to cut federal funding for these public media organizations on First Amendment and statutory grounds.
Collectively, these legal actions represent an aggressive escalation in Trump’s use of litigation against media organizations: suing, settling, and threatening networks and publishers across the ideological spectrum. Analysts caution that the strategy might suppress critical reporting through intimidation or financial pressure, even when legal claims are weak or dismissed in court.
Trump continues to use his preferred communication platform to issue these threats, demonstrating how Truth Social has become his primary tool for governance and political messaging during his second term.
