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Last time Trump bullied ABC News, it coughed up $16 million for him and fervently hoped he would now leave them alone. Nope. Giving in to bullies merely encourages them. Now Trump has again threatened to yank ABC's broadcast license. They never learn.
What did ABC do this time? On Tuesday, an ABC reporter, Mary Bruce, asked him about the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence has said was ordered by now-honored guest Mohammad bin Salman. Trump's reply was: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great [FCC] chairman, who should take a look at that."
Trump is not a detail man, so he actually got this wrong. ABC doesn't have the broadcast license. Its parent company, Disney, does. And this is not the first time around for Disney either. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened the company when Jimmy Kimmel made comments suggesting that Charlie Kirk might not have been the nicest person on earth and shouldn't be treated as if he were. Disney caved, and then, under public pressure, uncaved. Carr also speculated that ABC's daytime show The View might not qualify as a news program.
Trump went on to praise his "friend" and business partner, MbS, who gave young Jared Kushner $2 billion to play with, despite the latter's lack of experience handling that kind of money. Given Kushner's above-the-norm 1.25% management fee (1% is typical for money managers), he is taking in $25 million a year, win or lose. MbS probably doesn't even care whether Kushner is doing well with his money. This is peanuts to him and he probably writes it off in his internal bookkeeping as "bribe to Trump." (V)