Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr declined to say whether President Donald Trump played a role in the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s CBS show — but hinted that media companies may be taking cues from the White House.
Fox News host Bill Hemmer on Thursday asked Carr directly: “Did President Trump have anything to do with the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show?”
Carr offered a roundabout response.
“Well here’s what’s important to keep in mind is a broader dynamic,” he began, before declaring that Trump, during the election, “ran right at these legacy broadcast media outfits and the New York and Hollywood elites that are behind it, and he smashed the facade that these are gatekeepers that can control what Americans think and what Americans can say.”
Carr alleged that Trump “exposed the business model a lot of these outfits as being nothing more than a partisan circus.”
He did acknowledge that, he believes, there are “a lot of consequences that are flowing” from Trump deciding that he’s not going to “play by the rules of politicians in the past,” or allow the mainstream media to “dictate the narratives in the terms of the debate,” before declaring, “he’s succeeding.”
Carr then pointed to Congress’s defunding of NPR and PBS, before adding, “Colbert is getting canceled.”
Hemmer responded, “I asked you a very direct question. I did not hear a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in your answer. I heard I heard ‘maybe.'”
Carr again did not give a direct answer.
“Yeah, ultimately, these are business decisions for CBS to make—and for these outfits to make.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
FOX: Did President Trump have anything to do with the cancelation of Colbert's show?
FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR: When President Trump ran for election, he ran right at these legacy broadcast media outfits
FOX: I did not hear an answer pic.twitter.com/xNuKCm6vBW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 24, 2025