Report: Trump wanted his FCC and the Justice Department to go after SNL and Jimmy Kimmel

The Daily Beast

In March 2019, the then-president had had enough of Saturday Night Live mocking him. “It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side,’” Trump tweeted. “Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?” The Daily Beast reports Trump did actually explore if the federal government could do something about him being mocked on late-night TV. "According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump had asked advisers and lawyers in early 2019 about what the Federal Communications Commission, the courts systems, and—most confusingly to some Trump lieutenants—the Department of Justice could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers," report The Daily Beast's Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley. "To those who heard it, Trump’s inquiries into what federal regulations could be used to bust the likes of Kimmel and SNL was more of a nuisance than a constitutional crisis." “It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you,” one of these sources recalled. Suebsaeng and Rawnsley add: "However, the conversations further showed, in the pettiest of ways, how the 45th U.S. president was keen on turning the country’s top law enforcers into something more akin to his own personally retained law firm."