Rebuke vs Punishment: How to Choose the Right Consequence

President Donald Trump is seething about remarks attributed to him by Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. Trump now claims Welker should be “reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” a move he casts as a defense of constitutional rights. (Mark this as one of those occasions where the First Amendment protections are supposed to shield speech, even when it’s uncomfortable.)

“Kristen Welker, once hailed as the respectable face of the program, now labeled by the president as Meet the Fake Press, allegedly asserted that Donald Trump’s endorsements yield only mixed outcomes, despite recent wins by Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei showing a 100% success rate in the Senate and 98% in the House, respectively, over both recent and long-term periods. How can such claims be aired on freely granted Public Airwaves?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Darline Graham’s Senate bid was the standout story in politics—she was not expected to win, yet after I endorsed her, she did, and the media barely covered the victory. The same happened with the future Governor of Oklahoma, who trailed in every poll until my endorsement, and then won, with little coverage! The Press is a Disgrace to our Nation, and I hope Chairman Brendan Carr and the members of his Commission will treat this threat to our country with the utmost seriousness.”

(Also: “THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT. FCC TO THE RESCUE!”)

The president is obviously wrong to try to sic the Federal Communications Commission on pundits who say things he dislikes. This is a major abuse of state power. In a better, more libertarian world, we wouldn’t have a FCC, so there would be fewer opportunities to use the levers of the state to crack down on speech presidents take offense to.

It’s not the first time the FCC has been asked to crack down on Trump’s critics. Last year, “FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to pull ABC’s broadcast license unless it stopped broadcasting comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show,” writes Ilya Somin in The Volokh Conspiracy. “Earlier, the FCC similarly threatened CBS, which then canceled Stephen Colbert’s show (Colbert is another anti-Trump comedian). Trump now threatens to use similar tactics against other broadcasters who air shows that attack him. Even if there were good market or quality-control reasons to get rid of Colbert or Kimmel, the government has no business trying to coerce such decisions….But there is a deeper problem here: an agency that has broad power to grand or deny licenses to broadcasters is an inherent danger to freedom of speech. That’s especially true when officials hide their unconstitutional motives more carefully than Trump and Carr have done.”

Welker’s actual Meet the Press remarks ought to be uncontroversial, in my view. “He, of course, has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries,” Welker said, referring to the president. “He’s had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, won her primary race and will face Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina.”

“While Graham did win her primary, other Trump-endorsed candidates have fallen short in their races,” reports Politico, “including Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who lost his bid for reelection to former news reporter Ryan Elijah, and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who lost his primary to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher. Trump also backed unsuccessful gubernatorial contenders Mike Lindell (Minnesota), Megan Degenfelder (Wyoming) and Randy Feenstra (Iowa).”

Maintaining a sense of curiosity about why Trump’s endorsements still carry considerable weight in some places—most notably South Carolina—would be a prudent stance for commentators to adopt. Too often, coverage of Trump carries a dismissive undertone, sometimes tinged with condescension toward his voters. That dynamic forms a loop: the media minimize him, and he responds by rallying more support, framing himself as besieged and portraying the media as biased against half the nation.

Yet, using the FCC to punish speech you disagree with remains off-limits.

Scenes from New York: More on the dubious bio of Gustavo Gordillo, the New York co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

So all of DSA’s Gustavo Gordillo’s story is a lie.

His parents didn’t even immigrate from Peru. His grandfather did and became a successful psychiatrist, married an American woman and had Gustavo’s father here who has a $90 million telecoms company.https://t.co/5IyRnmO704

— Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino) August 30, 2026

QUICK TAKES

• “About a month ago, John and Anna learned that measles was spreading within their community. Lancaster County has documented 210 cases so far this year. Apart from John, none of the family had been vaccinated against the virus. John said he’d heard a rumor that this version of measles might not be dangerous for pregnant women, but he wasn’t sure what to believe,” reports The Atlantic, in a piece about an Amish family who lost a newborn to the disease. “Although the Amish Church has no official vaccine ban, vaccination rates among the Amish are typically low: last year the state health department estimated that only about a quarter of Lancaster County’s Amish had received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.”
• “The Pentagon has clandestinely placed several conservative veterans with large online followings into government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and lash out at critics of the Trump administration, according to familiar sources and corroborating materials,” reports The Washington Post. “Among those involved are Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel, according to those with knowledge of the matter.”
• “Europe has just endured a summer of unprecedented heat,” notes The Wall Street Journal. “A string of brutal heat waves shattered temperature records. Wildfires, fueled by heat and drought, ravaged France and Spain and even reached places like Wales. Rivers across central Europe ran dangerously low. England’s lush hills and city parks dried out. Crops failed, riverboats ran aground, trains derailed.”
• Provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was sent back to the U.K., and Laura Loomer might share some responsibility:

As I noted in April, I urged @RealCandaceO Candace Owens to be investigated by @DHSgov and @ICEgov @AGToddBlanche for harboring an undocumented individual in her home for an “interview”.

Candace Owens allowed Milo Yiannopoulos into her home to demean TPUSA and its allies… https://t.co/zaQdlPy0MV

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 28, 2026