First, what he said. From Politico:
“They’re giving me all this bad press, and they’re getting a license,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr should go after other talk show hosts after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from the air. “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
He added: “When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — that license, they’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.”
Actually Donnie, they're very much "allowed to do that."
When he took office, Donald Trump took this oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
And among the duties as outlined in the Constitution:
[H]e shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.
This includes all the amendments (not just the 2nd).
Indeed, political speech is at the heart of The First Amendment's protections.
What's not allowed is what his FCC did to Jimmy Kimmel.
The First Amendment prohibits government officials from wielding their power selectively to punish or suppress speech, including through private intermediaries.
Specifically:
At the heart of the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause is the recognition that viewpoint discrimination is uniquely harmful to a free and democratic society.
And:
In Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, this Court explored the distinction between permissible attempts to persuade and impermissible attempts to coerce. The Court explained that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from relying on the “threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion . . . to achieve the suppression” of disfavored speech.
And:
Ultimately, Bantam Books stands for the principle that a government official cannot directly or indirectly coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf.
But that was Justice Sonya Sotomayor writing.
What does, say, Samuel Alito have to say about free speech?
Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.
And, again, this is what Trump said on Air Force One:
When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — that license, they’re not allowed to do that.
Yes, they are.
You're just not allowed to stop them.
