Nexstar gets a big, all-caps Trump thumbs-up for plan to own TV stations in 80 percent of the U.S.

Trump declared that bending the FCC's rules about station ownership to their breaking point was necessary to defeat "THE ENEMY"—i.e., network news.

By William Hughes  |  February 7, 2026 | 7:18pm
Image: Nexstar
TV News Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar gets a big, all-caps Trump thumbs-up for plan to own TV stations in 80 percent of the U.S.

Nexstar Media Group made big news last year when—allegedly following some not especially subtle cues from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr—it got Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air for a week by boycotting his show over comments he made about the death of Charlie Kirk. (The company, the largest owner of TV networks in the United States, owns more than 30 ABC affiliates as part of its 197-channel portfolio.) At the time, there was a lot of speculation that Nexstar was very deliberately cozying up to the Trump administration in hopes of getting regulatory approval for its plans to merge with Tegna, the former Gannett brand that owns a relatively paltry 68 networks—and whose acquisition would mean that Nexstar-owned networks would suddenly reach something like 80 percent of all households in America. 

Given that that’s more than twice the amount allowed by FCC rules, which limit any one company from owning channels broadcasting to more than 39 percent of the country’s homes, this was obviously going to require some pretty deft regulatory tightrope walking. Or, uh, not, as (per Deadline) Donald Trump took to his personal bullshit pulpit, Truth Social, this weekend to trumpet that, in service of defeating “THE ENEMY”—i.e., the basic structure of national broadcast news—he was giving a full-throated endorsement to the deal. Feeling the fingers shoved in his beige puppet hole twitch, Carr then raced to double-down on Trump’s endorsement, long-standing ownership rules be damned.

Now, there are legal questions about whether the FCC has the actual authority to waive the 39-percent rule on its own, or whether that requires Congressional approval—but, as human beings with basic pattern recognition abilities, it doesn’t seem all that difficult to imagine Carr and his cronies forging ahead anyway and basically daring a judge or legislator to stop them. (Carr, specifically, has been making noises about lifting the 39-percent rule for years.) Interestingly, Trump himself was more skeptical about breaking the household cap back in 2025, with him and his faithful caps lock worrying that it would allow for “EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS.” (Most of the big networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS do own and operate some channels themselves, especially in major markets, but their overall ownership is generally much smaller than that of dedicated companies like Nexstar or Sinclair Broadcast Group.) The White House has clearly changed its mind since then, though, with Trump arguing in his latest post that creating what certainly looks like a national monopoly on TV network ownership would actually create “more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” i.e., so lofty and sophisticated that it may look like no competition at all.

Anyway: Congress is set to have a hearing on the 39-percent rule on Tuesday, with advocates on both sides of the issue speaking out.

 
Join the discussion...
Keep scrolling for more great stories.