President Donald Trump took aim at NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker on August 30, 2026. Two words she used to describe his record of endorsing candidates — “mixed results” — would land her, he announced, in a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Trump, 80, ridiculed Welker and her show at length on Truth Social. In U.S. Senate races he put his recent endorsement record at 100 percent, in U.S. House races at 98 percent, and, elsewhere in the same post, at 99 percent overall — 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. He said he hoped FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and the rest of the commissioners would take seriously what he called a danger to the country.
The FCC’s own website says the agency “cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view.”
What Welker Actually Said
The line never aired on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.” Journalist Aaron Rupar wrote 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, one of them saying, “I just finished watching the entire program. The subject never came up! Kristen said nothing of the sort! Trump is deranged.”
Welker’s actual remarks came in a live appearance on NBC 4 Washington ahead of Sunday’s broadcast. “He’s going to loom large over these midterms,” Welker told the NBC affiliate. A slate of primary candidates had carried Trump’s endorsement, she went on to note, and the results had been somewhat mixed. Her next example was his latest pick: the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina, who narrowly defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in her primary runoff on August 25 and now faces Dr. Annie Andrews. Welker volunteered that endorsement win herself, in the same breath as the phrase Trump objected to.
“Kristen is one of the best in the business, and we stand by her,” NBC News said. She has moderated “Meet the Press” since September 2023. Several interviews with her have gone ahead in that time, even as Trump has attacked her repeatedly over the last two years.
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.” She added: “These threats to press freedom are dangerous.”