One of President Donald Trump's biographers revealed on Thursday why ABC capitulated to the Trump administration's seeming threats to remove late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel's show from the air.
Michael Wolff, who has written four books on Trump, discussed ABC's decision to indefinitely suspend "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Wednesday on a new episode of the "Inside Trump's Head" podcast that he co-hosts with The Daily Beast's Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles.
Wolff noted that Disney's CEO, Bob Iger, seems like the kind of person who could withstand a barrage from Trump because he is a billionaire in his own right. He framed Iger's response as a pragmatic business decision.
"He realizes that the ire of Donald Trump will be bad for business, and, therefore, we submit to that," Wolff said. "There are many other stakeholders in a media company, and they have to maintain credibility. If you lose that, then you lose the store, would have been the old rationale on this."
"In this instance now, if you lose Donald Trump, you lose the store," Wolff added.
Wolff's comments come at a time when ABC's decision to suspend Kimmel's show is under intense scrutiny. Some media experts have called out the barely veiled threat FCC chair Brendan Carr levied on a MAGA influencer's podcast. Some conservatives have defended the move as within Disney's rights as a private company.