Donald Trump has threatened to bring an FCC complaint against NBC News' Kristen Welker, marking the first time he has invoked the power of a federal agency against a named individual journalist. The threat followed remarks Welker made on a Washington, D.C. local affiliate describing Trump's midterm election endorsements as having had "mixed results" — a comment Trump branded false, despite it being broadly accurate given his endorsees' varied success rates.

Trump claimed near-total success for his endorsed candidates, disputing Welker's characterisation and vowing to report her to the FCC for "purposeful inaccuracy". In reality, some Trump-backed candidates have lost, including Cory Mills in Florida and Mike Lindell in Minnesota's gubernatorial primary, while others, including Darline Graham, have won. FCC Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez said the agency has no authority to punish journalists, calling such threats dangerous to press freedom, while NBC News voiced full support for Welker. The episode comes as Disney/ABC separately sues the FCC over its handling of broadcast licences and The View.