President Donald Trump said on August 30, 2026, that he would report NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over two words she used to describe his record of endorsing candidates: “mixed results.”
Writing at length on Truth Social, Trump, 80, ridiculed Welker and her show. He put his recent endorsement record at 100 percent in U.S. Senate races and 98 percent in U.S. House races — and, elsewhere in the same post, his overall rate at 99 percent — then asked how anyone broadcasting on public airwaves could be permitted to claim otherwise. “Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” he wrote. Trump added that he hoped FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and the other commissioners would treat what he described as a danger to the country seriously.
What Welker Actually Said
The comment did not air on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.” Journalist Aaron Rupar posted on X on August 30: “Notably, Kristen Welker did not say this on today’s Meet the Press.” Viewers who watched the full broadcast made the same point, with one saying, “I just finished watching the entire program. The subject never came up! Kristen said nothing of the sort! Trump is deranged.” “He’s going to loom large over these midterms,” Welker told the NBC affiliate, in a live appearance on NBC 4 Washington ahead of Sunday’s broadcast, going on to note that Trump had endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries and had seen some mixed results. She went on to cite his latest pick, Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who narrowly defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in her August 25 primary runoff and now faces Dr. Annie Andrews — a Trump endorsement win Welker volunteered herself, in the same breath as the phrase he objected to.
“Kristen is one of the best in the business, and we stand by her,” NBC News said. Welker has moderated “Meet the Press” since September 2023. Trump has attacked her repeatedly over the last two years, even though he has also sat down with her for several interviews.
The Numbers Behind the Endorsement Fight
Trump’s win rate in this year’s Republican primaries has been high: news accounts citing Ballotpedia put him at roughly 313 endorsements with a 96 percent success rate as of mid-August. Many of those races, however, were never close, and a number of his choices ran unopposed. More than a dozen candidates he endorsed have lost this cycle, and NBC’s own election desk counted six Trump-endorsed contenders for House seats and governorships who were defeated in primaries earlier this month. Other outlets have likewise characterized his recent record as mixed.
The losses this cycle include Mike Lindell, defeated by Lisa Demuth in Minnesota’s Republican race for governor on August 11, and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., ousted in his August 6 reelection primary by challenger Charlie Hatcher. Earlier in the year, Rep. Randy Feenstra lost Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial primary to Zach Lahn on June 2, and Burt Jones was beaten by Rick Jackson in Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial runoff on June 16. In his post, Trump also grumbled that Graham’s victory received almost no coverage, even though her runoff was widely covered by national outlets and throughout South Carolina. He made the same complaint about Mike Mazzei, his pick in the Oklahoma governor’s race.
Welker was not the only person Trump went after Sunday. In a separate message written entirely in capital letters, he attacked what he termed fake polls, said something needed to be done about them and declared that the FCC should come to the rescue. The endorsement arithmetic has bothered him for days. On Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said the president had personally texted him charts disputing Maher’s on-air assertion that Trump is losing nearly all of his endorsement races. Maher said he had “overstated it” and that the full picture was “a little more nuanced,” then quipped: “Now, stop texting.”
Carr’s FCC Already Facing a Lawsuit
The threat comes as the FCC fights a court case of its own. On August 18, 2026, ABC’s corporate parent, Disney, sued the FCC on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the agency’s regulatory moves amounted to retaliation for the network’s news coverage and other content. In April 2026, days after Trump demanded that comedian Jimmy Kimmel be fired, Carr mounted an unusual challenge to ABC’s local station licenses and directed the network’s eight owned stations to submit their broadcast licenses for early renewal review, years ahead of schedule. Carr has insisted the move was driven by his inquiry into Disney’s diversity practices and not by the Kimmel episode. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan declined to fast-track ABC’s bid for a temporary restraining order and set a hearing for the week of October 5.
Carr, appointed by Trump, has acted swiftly in the past when the president complained about broadcasters. In March 2026, he issued threats to broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war after Trump aired a similar grievance on Truth Social. Comcast, NBC’s parent company, has been the subject of an inquiry by Carr since February 2025 into what he called invidious forms of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) discrimination. Former commission officials from both parties say he is weaponizing the agency and chilling free speech.
It is unclear whether any of that could reach Welker. The commission’s own guidance says it “is barred by law from trying to prevent the broadcast of any point of view,” and although anyone can file a complaint, the consumer complaint center offers no complaint category covering objections to a news report. Trump’s messages amounted to his clearest attempt so far to steer the agency toward acting on his behalf, despite its limited authority over news content.
Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, pushed back, writing that “the FCC has no authority to punish journalists this administration doesn’t like” and calling such threats to press freedom dangerous.
Actress Lisa Rinna publicly took Welker’s side on September 1, reposting on X a message by X user Heather Delaney Reese that read: “Fascism spreads by turning our own institutions against us. It happens when a man with the full power of the presidency tells a journalist she will be ‘reported for rebuke or punishment’ because she stated a FACT he did not like, and then warns every other journalist in the country that they could be next.”
No complaint has been confirmed filed, and neither Carr nor the commission had responded publicly as of Tuesday. If one is ever lodged, NBC’s answer would be short. Welker never claimed that most of Trump’s picks lose — only that his results have been mixed, a description the network’s own election coverage backs up.
