Business
Trump’s pressure on the media is mounting, with Kimmel sidelined ‘indefinitely’
Show host Jimmy Kimmel delivers his opening monologue at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 10, 2024.
Mike Blake | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s pressure on media companies is mounting.
On Wednesday, the Walt Disney Co. pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air “indefinitely” from its ABC network after the host made comments linking the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
The move is drawing comparisons to CBS’ cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in July and raising questions about the protection of free speech in a Trump-era broadcast environment.
“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 during a monologue that aired Monday night.
“In between the finger-pointing there was grieving. On Friday the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this,” he continued, teeing up a clip of Trump on the White House lawn.
Trump was asked how he was holding up in the wake of Kirk’s death, to which he answered, “I think very good,” before pivoting to point out that construction had started on the new $200 million ballroom project.
“He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel joked. “Demolition. Construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish. OK? And it didn’t just happen once.”
Kimmel has not been fired, but Disney heads wanted to speak with the host about what he should say when he goes back on the air, according to people familiar with the situation.
Trump weighed in on the matter Thursday, saying, “They should have fired him a long time ago. … He was fired for a lack of talent.”
FCC approval
Kimmel, ABC and Disney are the latest target of Trump’s scrutiny of media companies, which has intensified during his second term marked by high-profile defamation lawsuits, the defunding of public broadcasters and regulatory interference from the Federal Communications Commission.
“An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control,” Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic FCC commissioner, wrote in a social media post Wednesday. “This Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression.”
Gomez has been outspoken about the FCC’s and Trump’s interactions with media companies. In late July, when the government agency approved the merger of Paramount and Skydance, she wrote a statement of dissent, saying she was troubled by Paramount’s recent payment to settle a suit brought by Trump against Paramount-owned CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can — and should-abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage,” she wrote at the time.
It’s not the first instance of Trump interfering with media mergers. He tried to block AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner in 2017 unless it sold off CNN. Ultimately, the deal went through in mid-2018.
The suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” came amid statements from FCC Chair Brendan Carr that suggested ABC’s broadcast license was at risk because of the remarks.
In a podcast interview Wednesday, before ABC’s announcement, Carr said the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at” with regard to Kimmel’s comments.
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
In August, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that ABC and NBC should lose their broadcast licenses for what he called “unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives.”
“Crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated,” Trump said in the post.
Notably, Disney needs regulatory approval for a deal that would see the NFL buy 10% of ESPN in exchange for NFL Media assets.
Carr told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday that Kimmel appeared to “mislead” the American public about facts regarding Charlie Kirk’s killing in the days leading up to his show’s suspension.
“The issue that arose here, where lots and lots of people were upset, was not a joke,” Carr said.
“It was not making fun,” Carr said. “It was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant fact that probably one of the most significant political events we’ve had in a long time, for the most significant political assassination we’ve seen in a long time.”
The show’s suspension also came after Nexstar Media Group said its ABC-affiliated stations would preempt Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future” beginning Wednesday.
Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2 billion merger with Tegna. About 10% of the approximately 225 ABC affiliate stations are owned by Nexstar. Tegna owns about 5% of ABC’s affiliate stations.
Sinclair, which owns around 40 ABC affiliate stations, also indefinitely preempted “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” It said it would not lift that suspension until it had a formal discussion with ABC about the network’s “commitment to professionalism and accountability” and called on Kimmel to issue a direct apology to Kirk’s family.
Sinclair said in August it is exploring merger options for its broadcast stations, though it hasn’t yet reached a deal.
Retaliatory actions
In addition to clashes with the FCC, media companies have also been the target of defamation lawsuits in recent years. Paramount’s $16 million payout to settle Trump’s suit was the result of the most recent case.
A lawsuit against ABC News was settled in December 2024, in which the network agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library after Trump claimed anchor George Stephanopoulos made an inaccurate on-air assertion that the then-president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump had been found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll. Trump denies Carroll’s claims that he attacked her.
Trump is currently suing The New York Times over articles and a book published during the 2024 campaign and The Wall Street Journal for a story that connected him to Jeffrey Epstein.
Additionally, Trump has barred specific reporters and whole news organizations from pooled press events for not using preferred terminology or for being critical of Trump.
The Associated Press is currently restricted from access to White House spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One because it would not adopt the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And former CNN reporter Jim Acosta had his credentials stripped back in 2018 after clashing with Trump. The ban was later overturned.
— CNBC’s Alex Sherman, Luke Fountain and Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Jimmy Kimmel’s comments aired on his show Monday night. A previous version misstated the day.
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Labour’s new deputy leader Lucy Powell has said the Government should not rip up its manifesto promises over tax hikes, amid mounting speculation it is preparing to do so at the Budget.
Ms Powell, who was sacked from Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet in September before winning the deputy leadership election last month, said “we should be following through on our manifesto, of course”.
She suggested breaking the pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT would damage “trust in politics”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the former Commons leader said: “We should be following through on our manifesto, of course. There’s no question about that.”
She continued: “Trust in politics is a key part of that because if we’re to take the country with us then they’ve got to trust us and that’s really important too.”
Ms Powell said the highly anticipated Budget should be about “putting more money back into the pockets of ordinary working people”.
She said: “That’s what that manifesto commitment is all about. And that’s what this Budget will be about I’m sure.”
She added: “It’s really important we stand by the promises that we were elected on and that we do what we said we would do.”
The Manchester Central MP also called for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted “in full” as a matter of urgency.
The Government has come under increasing pressure to scrap the policy, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
Ms Reeves is expected to make changes to the limit, first announced in 2015 by the Conservatives, in her autumn statement.
It has been reported the Treasury is looking at different options including whether additional benefits might be limited to three or four children, or whether there could be a taper rate meaning parents would receive the most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.
Ms Powell said: “I think what we’ve all been talking about recently is the urgency of that now, because every year that passes with this policy in place, another 40,000 minimum, 40,000 children, are pushed into deep levels of poverty as a result of it and that’s why it is urgent that we do lift it and we lift it in full.”
Her comments could cause a headache for the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who have recently heightened expectations that the November 26 Budget will feature an increase in the basic rate of income tax.
Doing so would mean ditching Labour’s commitment to voters ahead of last year’s general election not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT.
Ms Reeves could use a 2p rise in income tax to help plug what the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said is a £50 billion black hole in the nation’s public finances and give herself a larger fiscal headroom.
Ms Powell won the deputy leadership race after a campaign based on a call for the party to change course.
Her intervention will be seen as evidence that she will use her position to speak out against Sir Keir’s administration’s policies, which she is free to do from the back benches, unlike her defeated deputy leadership rival, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who is bound by collective responsibility.
Danielle KayeBusiness reporter
ReutersUS President Donald Trump has announced deals that aim to lower the cost of popular weight-loss drugs, as pharmaceutical prices take centre stage in his administration’s messaging around affordability.
Speaking alongside drug executives at the White House, Trump unveiled agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Consumers are set to pay between $245 and $350 per month for obesity drugs including Wegovy and Zepbound.
Many GLP-1 drugs, used to treat diabetes and obesity, cost over $1,000 a month without insurance or discounts.
The deals will expand Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk’s access to Medicare and Medicaid, the government’s public healthcare plans for elderly and low-income Americans.
Eli Lilly also said in a statement it would escape tariffs for three years as part of the agreement with the Trump administration.
An estimated 10% of Medicare beneficiaries will be eligible for expanded access to GLP-1 drugs, and will only pay $50, according to senior administration officials.
Those enrolled in Medicaid will see a rolling start date based on when states sign up to participate, the officials said.
Trump has long pushed for “most-favoured nations” prices – a policy aimed at aligning drug prices in the US with lower ones abroad.
The obesity drugs will be sold at discounted prices on the direct-to-consumer TrumpRx, a government-run website set to launch by January.
On TrumpRx, Wegovy and Zepbound will start at $350 per month on average, and drop to $250 within two years, administration officials said. The Medicare prices of Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound will be $245.
Along with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, Eli Lilly’s weight-loss pill, orforglipron, will be sold for $149 for the lowest dose, Eli Lilly said in a statement. The company’s Zepbound medication will cost $299 for a starting dose.
Those prices are dependent on Food and Drug Administration approval of the pills.
“Lilly is in a unique position to work with the US government to rebalance the global system, expand access and lower costs for Americans,” David Ricks, Eli Lilly’s chief executive, said in a statement.
GLP-1 drugs are often not covered by private insurance. Federal law bans Medicare from covering the drugs when used for weight loss, though they usually are covered when used to treat diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Only 13 states provide coverage under Medicaid for weight loss purposes.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, speaking at the White House, said the deals were products of months of negotiations with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. He called obesity “the number one driver of chronic disease” in the US.
“This will be a lifesaver to them,” Kennedy said.
“It’s not a panacea, it’s not a silver bullet,” he added, stressing the importance of dietary changes and physical exercise.
Since July, Trump has been pressuring pharmaceutical firms to lower drug prices. He sent letters to 17 drug companies in the summer, giving them 60 days to respond to his demands for lower prices.
Pfizer was the first major drug maker to reach a deal with Trump, slashing prices for some medicines by up to 85% on the TrumpRx site. Pfizer also agreed to lower prescription drug prices for Medicaid.
AstraZeneca and EMD Serono have also reached deals with the administration in recent weeks.
Tax hikes in the Budget could push soaring food prices even higher, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s has warned.
Simon Roberts said that customers were already holding back spending ahead of this month’s announcement, days after Rachel Reeves laid the ground to break her manifesto pledge by increasing income tax.
In a major speech on Tuesday, the chancellor put the country on notice of “hard choices” ahead, saying that “we will all have to contribute”, as she tries to fill a multibillion-pound hole in the nation’s finances.
Economists have warned Ms Reeves that a combination of sluggish economic growth, higher borrowing and Labour U-turns mean she must raise taxes or tear up her flagship borrowing rules in the Budget, a move which would risk creating turmoil in the markets.
Mr Roberts warned that inflationary pressures had already significantly impacted the supermarket sector this year, adding: “What we don’t want to see is further impacts that may cause further inflation. No one wants to see inflation go any higher.”
Marks and Spencer boss Stuart Machin also warned that Ms Reeves’s pre-Budget speech had fuelled customer worries over tax hikes and said shoppers were now “planning for the worst”.
The industry has already absorbed significant hits, including a rise in national insurance contributions in April which cost Sainsbury’s an extra £140 million, Mr Roberts said.
New red tape on packaging also added “tens of millions” to its expenses, with prices raised in response, he added.
The warnings came as the Bank of England held interest rates at 4 per cent, despite policymakers saying they believed inflation had “peaked”.
The Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey told a press conference that he wanted to see more evidence over the longer term that inflation would not rise again.
Members of the nine-strong committee voted five to four in favour of maintaining the rate, which is used to dictate mortgage rates and other borrowing costs.
Tony Blair’s think tank has warned Ms Reeves that she must slash taxes again before the next election if she breaks her key manifesto pledge and hikes them in the Budget.
It has also said any any tax hikes, such as raising VAT or income tax, must be done in tandem with pro-business policies to break Britain’s “tax-and-spend doom loop”.
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