Fighting Trump will make or break Disney’s new CEO

A week ago, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro was busy wooing investors to turn Disney Plus into the company’s “digital brand.” By last Friday, however, his focus had shifted to fighting the Trump administration over free speech.

Disney-owned ABC is now accusing the regulator of violating its rules First Amendment Rights and ongoing research in Views. D’Amaro – the former head of Disney’s parks department – wanted his legacy to be defined by the company’s partnership with the Disney Plus brand. But the battle with Donald Trump and the Federal Communications Commission should be the first thing that defines his time.

In his own recently at the FCCThe ABC said the organization was threatening free speech his constant search to where Views violated the “equal time” law, which requires radio and television broadcasters to give political candidates equal access and time. Ahead of this year’s midterm elections, Views they ran segments with James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett – two Texas Democrats running for Senate seats – and the FCC seems to disagree with the fact that the show did not invite Republican politicians to speak on camera.

The ABC write-up says this Views was granted the right to the same time law “more than twenty years ago” because it is “a true communication program.” The company also insisted that, under attack ViewsThe FCC is taking action that will “undermine the First Amendment’s protected speech for years and years to come.”

“The danger is that the government will decide what to regulate and what to leave untouched,” ABC said. “In fact, when the Commission asks Viewsexemption for decades, has shown no desire to interpret the law of equal opportunity in a similar way to other broadcasters, including many voices—conservative and moderate—in broadcasting.”

This flavor is being harassed by the FCC and President-elect Trump Brendan Carr it started long before D’Amaro replaced Bob Iger. In reliance on the FCC’s contentious interference rule, Carr threatened minus the broadcasting licenses of each radio station Jimmy Kimmel Live! response to the late night show a joke about the reaction of the Republicans to the death of Charlie Kirk. The threats prompted ABC pull the trigger for about a week before new ones began to air again.

It was clear that Disney/ABC was trying to keep the Trump administration happy, but that didn’t stop the President Kimmel calls again and creating a new Disney theme. The FCC he recently ordered Disney-owned ABC stations in eight different markets to renew their broadcast licenses by May 28 even though they are not scheduled to do so until 2028. And while the FCC is focusing Views now, in january, the organization signed that it plans to end the same-time exemption granted to other daytime and nighttime channels.

Unlike Disney, submission to the Trump administration has helped Paramount in the past year as they negotiate. an $8 billion purchase agreement and David Ellison’s Skydance. It seemed clear that Paramount was trying to please the Trump administration when the company announced last summer that it was ban The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Very important he said that the move was a cost-cutting measure. This would have been easier to believe if the president hadn’t history of being with Colbert through the FCC and if Paramount and Skydance did not need FCC approval to complete their merger.

History has shown us that no amount of bowing to Disney will stop Trump from going after the company because he sees it as a political enemy. This may not have been apparent to D’Amaro’s predecessors, such as Iger – who signed it on paying Trump $15 million to end it defamation case in 2024 — by Bob Chapek, who refused to protest Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay.” bill even though Disney employees raised concerns about how the legislation would hurt them. But this fact is something that D’Amaro cannot ignore now that Trump and his allies are clearly showing what they are doing.

In recent letter to D’AmaroThe FCC’s sole commissioner, Anna M. Gomez, said that in settling with Trump in 2024, Disney “told the Government that enforcement works.” Gomez explained how all of this highlights the brutal behavior of the Trump administration, and was blunt about how “the First Amendment is not for this Administration to grant or deny.”

“It’s for the public, the media, and every broadcaster who wants to protect it,” Gomez wrote. “Your journalists do an important job for millions of Americans across the country, and the viewers who stood up to defend Jimmy Kimmel are the same ones who will stand up again if the FCC follows through on its threats.”

Gomez couldn’t be more accurate here. The Trump administration is trying to bludgeon ABC and Disney into shameful submission by pretending they are promoting a healthy and fair image. It’s clear that the president is only acting on his own agenda, but transparency is why Disney should feel empowered to call the bull.

ABC’s claim that the FCC is cracking down on the show marks a major shift for Disney, a company that spent years playing it safe. lawless people attacked it in doing “wake up” things like talking about the issues of oppressed groups of people. D’Amaro has seen this self control and throwing money at the Trump administration won’t stop the president from trying to hurt Disney. And instead of following in the footsteps of his predecessors, it seems like D’Amaro understands that the only way forward is to deal with Trump and understand that this will end up in the courts.

This can be an ugly, expensive, and tedious battle that no CEO wants to deal with – especially in their first year on the job.