John Koblin and Jim Rutenberg
President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging campaign to punish his perceived media critics has come for newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, the Des Moines Register and The New York Times; broadcast outlets such as the BBC, NBC News and CBS News; and late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
But now it is bearing down on a new opponent, one that remains politically potent and has a storied place in Trump’s oeuvre of media grudge matches — the long-running American ABC daytime talk show The View.
The Federal Communications Commission has been quietly investigating the program for months, looking into whether The View violated old federal rules requiring equal airtime to rival political candidates. The inquiry could also feed into the agency’s wider review of whether ABC (which has no connection to the Australian broadcaster of the same name) should be allowed to continue to own some of the country’s most important local television stations.
The clash between ABC and the Trump administration could lead to a protracted, high-stakes legal battle over free expression. The network asserts that the FCC action could have “a chilling effect on First Amendment-protected free speech on the eve of the 2026 elections” and affect which political guests — if any — talk shows will book.
The central role of The View is testament to the enduring influence of an old-fashioned broadcast television program that ABC anchor Barbara Walters started 29 years ago, describing it “as a kaffeeklatsch with more caffeine.” People in both parties say the show continues to hold significant political power — even as streaming, podcasts and social media take up more attention.
The View draws 2.7 million viewers a day, more or less the audience it has had for a decade, according to Nielsen.
“It would be easy for our side to say, ‘who watches that junk?’” said Tim Graham, a senior leader of the Media Research Centre, a conservative group that has long been critical of the show. “But the answer is: many people.”
Representatives for The View declined to comment, or to set up interviews with the hosts or anyone involved in the production.
Walters’ intention, as she said on the premiere episode in 1997, was to make the show destination viewing for a broad swath of women “of different generations, backgrounds and views.” The show’s panel has long included a conservative presence to balance the progressivism of its long-standing hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg.
Trump, who was good friends with Walters, used to be a regular guest, once seeing the show as a great platform to promote himself, his business and his family. During a March 2006 appearance, Trump, sitting next to Ivanka Trump, notoriously mused, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” (“Who are you, Woody Allen?” Behar blurted, sending Trump into a fit of laughter.)
Weeks later, Melania Trump gave the show her first interview after the birth of her son, Barron, revealing details about the delivery (“very, very easy”) and informing viewers that Donald Trump had elected to stay out of the delivery room. Sometimes the Trumps even appeared together: In 2010, they made a joint appearance when she promoted her QVC jewellery line.
But The View also set the scene for a foundational Trump feud — with former host Rosie O’Donnell, starting in 2006. She called him a “snake-oil salesman”; he called her “a slob” and worse.
The final break in the relationship between the show and Trump came shortly after he entered politics. He clashed with Goldberg over his description of Mexicans as “rapists” in 2015, and he declined invitations from The View thereafter. He made 18 appearances in all.
The hosts became more critical of Trump over the past decade, and he attacked them back. The two Republicans on the panel — a first-term Trump spokesperson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and longtime strategist Ana Navarro — are frequent Trump critics. And the anti-Trump critics are even tougher.
“It is unbelievable to me,” Sunny Hostin, a host, said this past week, “that there are still people — despite the fact that they don’t have healthcare, despite the fact that the Department of Education has been gutted, despite the fact that they can’t afford to buy eggs — they are still with their guy.”
Conservatives accuse the show of interviewing mostly Democrats. This spring, the Media Research Centre released a report titled, “The View Kicks Off Midterm Year With 27 Liberal Guests to 1 Republican.” (The study included celebrities in its tally.)
In its filing with the FCC, ABC noted that guest appearances did not reflect the full range of invitations. The network said the show had invited numerous Trump allies over the past two seasons, including Vice President JD Vance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Senator Lindsey Graham, Elon Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — all of whom declined.
ABC’s lawyers said bookings were “based on newsworthiness, anticipated audience interest and their potential to ‘make news’ on the show.”
The administration has escalated its attacks over the past year. In July, it released a statement rooting for the show’s cancellation, after Behar compared Trump unfavourably with former President Barack Obama.
The seriousness of the FCC’s inquiry into The View came to light when ABC responded forcefully to it this past week. The agency is looking into whether the show was improperly operating outside long-standing broadcast rules requiring entertainment programs to provide equal airtime to candidates for the same office.
ABC’s lawyers noted that The View had received a news exemption from the agency in 2002 and that the exemption had not been challenged in the 24 years since.
Their response, which became public Friday, accused the FCC of violating the network’s First Amendment rights and indicated that they were prepared to take the case as far as the Supreme Court.
The network maintains that the mix of its guests should not be the government’s concern. “Of course, government officials are free to express their own views about The View,” ABC’s lawyers said in the filing. “But they cannot utilise the coercive powers of the state to punish viewpoints with which they disagree.”
The show has long been under a political microscope, not only because of what its hosts say but also because of the makeup of its audience.
The two highest-rated media markets for The View, according to Nielsen, are Philadelphia and the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City market in Michigan’s industrial corridor — both in swing states. The show also draws strong audiences in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago and New York, Nielsen said, as well as in West Palm Beach, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri; and Hartford, Connecticut.
That audience is made up of a prime voting demographic; two-thirds of its viewers are 65 or older, and nearly 90 per cent are older than 50. Seventy per cent are women. And 60 per cent of its viewers are white, and a quarter are Black, according to Nielsen.
“Women are one of the most important swing segments of the electorate,” said Daniel Suhr of the Centre for American Rights, a conservative legal group that in March urged the FCC to deny The View an exemption from the equal-airtime rules as a “bona fide” news program.
Having hosts who “constantly bash the president and the party” on a show that draws such swing voters, Suhr said, “has a real effect on our politics.”
Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist who has long seen The View as an important stop on any major candidate’s campaign schedule, said she thought conservatives were mainly picking on the show to whip up the faithful against a favorite media target. But, she added, The View does have its uses for Democrats.
“They reach a large audience of women, and Democrats need women to turn out to vote to win,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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