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, alleging that the government agency is violating the First Amendment and trying to influence editorial content it deems unfriendly to the president.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr initiated a review of ABC’s broadcast licenses in late April, shortly after Trump said that ABC should fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about Melania Trump.
This move was a “blatant retaliation,” ABC alleged in its legal filing. The company wants a judge to grant a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, which would be emergency actions 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 “possible violations” against FCC rules prohibiting “unlawful discrimination.” An early license renewal review was “essential” to make sure ABC was acting in the public interest, it said in April.
ABC’s legal complaint said that the FCC “has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”
ABC’s filing included a screenshot of a Truth Social post from Trump in late December that said: “If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to 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, both its journalists’ reporting and its hosts’ viewpoints.
“Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech,” ABC’s filing said.
ABC’s filing said that “government censorship is deeply un-American.”
An FCC spokesperson said in a statement about Disney’s filing that the agency “has been examining claims that Disney engaged in illegal DEI discrimination” and said that “Disney is obviously very concerned about the FCC’s proceeding.”
“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 the one taken by former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who temporarily took Kimmel off the air last fall following conservative backlash over a controversial joke about the reaction 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 ensued across Disney’s parks and streaming services. Iger’s Disney later reversed course, which angered some conservatives.
D’Amaro’s Disney, in contrast, has consistently pushed back on the political pressure — and has now escalated the fight.
Business Insider’s Peter Kafka put it this way after the Mouse House made a filing in May challenging the FCC’s review: “Disney’s first approach to Trump 2.0: Give Donald Trump what he wants. Now it’s trying something different: The opposite.”
