President Donald Trump is escalating his battle with TV networks by laying the groundwork to pull their broadcast licenses if they air college football games that compete with the annual Army-Navy game.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday directing Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to review whether the “public interest” requirements that TV licensees agree to uphold should include preserving an exclusive programming time slot for the historic rivalry game between West Point cadets and midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Trump signed the order after presenting a trophy to the Navy football team, which won last year’s contest, at the White House on Friday.
The order appears to grant Carr the bandwidth to revoke licenses for any broadcasters who schedule a college football game “in a manner that directly conflicts with the Army-Navy Game,” which has been broadcast on CBS since 1996. In 2024, the network signed a new deal to broadcast the game through 2038. The game is traditionally played on the second Saturday in December.
Trump appeared to acknowledge the limits to which the order could be enforced to protect the game, which he’s regularly attended in person as president.
“Of course, we’ll probably get sued at some point,” Trump said at the White House on Friday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order further empowers Carr, who attended Friday’s trophy presentation, to pressure the networks into airing — or not airing — certain programming. After Carr suggested in September he could suspend ABC’s broadcast license following comments from Jimmy Kimmel about the killing of Charlie Kirk, the network briefly took Kimmel’s show off the air.
Carr’s strict interpretation of the “equal time” rule, which requires some TV programs to grant opposing political candidates equivalent time on their shows, spooked CBS into keeping Stephen Colbert’s interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico from airing.
And Carr’s threats appear to have worked; Democrats are growing increasingly wary of booking their candidates on TV programs for fear of FCC retribution.
Carr said he plans to work with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to enforce the order.
“America’s Game stands as a symbol of excellences and our great national sprit [sic],” Carr said in a statement. “It is important that we continue to reserve a window of time on the second Saturday in December exclusively for this important event.”