Disney under Josh D’Amaro is pushing back strongly against Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.
Disney-owned ABC sued the FCC on Tuesday morning, saying the government agency is violating the First Amendment and trying to influence editorial content it deems unfriendly to the president.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr A review of ABC’s broadcast licenses started at the end of April, shortly after Trump told ABC to do so comedian Jimmy Kimmel should be fired for a joke about Melania Trump.
This move was “blatant retaliation,” ABC alleged in its legal filing. The company wants a judge to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, which would be emergency measures that would pause the FCC’s review.
The FCC had said it was reviewing ABC’s broadcast licenses as part of an investigation into Disney’s DEI practices.
The FCC said the broadcast network had “potential violations” of FCC rules prohibiting “unlawful discrimination.” An early review of the license renewal was “essential” to ensure ABC was acting in the public interest, the company said in April.
ABC’s legal complaint stated that the FCC “has waged a campaign of retaliation against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”
ABC’s filing included a screenshot of one Truth Social Post from Trump in late December stating, “If Network NEWSCASTS and their Late Night Shows are almost 100% negative towards President Donald J. Trump, MAGA and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable broadcast licenses be terminated? I say YES!”
Disney’s broadcast network said the Trump administration had repeatedly “attacked” its speech, targeting both the reporters’ reporting and the presenters’ positions.
“Over time, these attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of his speech,” ABC’s filing said.
ABC’s filing stated that “government censorship is deeply un-American.”
An FCC spokesperson said in a statement about Disney’s filing that the agency “investigated claims that Disney engaged in illegal DEI discrimination” and said that “Disney is clearly very concerned about the FCC’s proceedings.”
“All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest – even Disney,” the FCC spokesperson said.
Disney plays offense under D’Amaro
D’Amaro has shown a willingness to clash with the Trump administration in his first five months as CEO.
It’s a different strategy than that of former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who temporarily took Kimmel off the air last fall after conservative backlash to a controversial joke about the response to Charlie Kirk’s death.
That decision sparked outrage among critics who said Iger had bowed to pressure from Trump and the FCC. A boycott followed at Disney’s parks and streaming services. Iger’s Disney later reversed course, angering some conservatives.
D’Amaro’s Disney, on the other hand, has consistently pushed back on political pressure – and has now escalated the fight.
Business Insider’s Peter Kafka put it this way after the Mouse House filed a complaint in May challenging the FCC review: “Disney’s first approach to Trump 2.0: Give Donald Trump what he wants. Now it’s trying something different: the opposite.”
