Brendan Carr
Trump-appointed FCC Chairman who authored the Project 2025 FCC chapter and systematically used regulatory leverage — DEI investigations, license scrutiny, equal time threats — to pressure media companies into silencing critics of the administration.
Background
Brendan Carr graduated from Georgetown University in 2001 with a BA in Government and earned his JD magna cum laude from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in 2005. He practiced telecommunications law at Wiley Rein LLP before joining the FCC as a staffer in 2012, eventually serving as General Counsel.
Trump first nominated Carr as an FCC Commissioner in June 2017. On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, Trump elevated him to Chairman.
Project 2025
Carr authored the FCC chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — the conservative blueprint for a second Trump term. Despite writing that “The FCC should promote freedom of speech,” his actions as chairman pursued the opposite: content-based regulation targeting media companies critical of the administration.
The Pattern
Carr’s FCC developed a consistent playbook: identify a media company with pending regulatory business before the FCC, then open investigations or issue guidance that creates compliance pressure.
DEI Investigations (February-March 2025)
Opened investigations into Comcast, Disney/ABC, CBS, and NBC News over corporate DEI practices. Paramount ended its DEI policies in apparent response. T-Mobile closed a joint venture deal after agreeing to end its DEI policies.
The Kimmel Ultimatum (September 2025)
After Jimmy Kimmel criticized MAGA figures on air, Carr told a podcast: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Hours later, station groups Nexstar and Sinclair pulled Kimmel from their markets. ABC suspended the show the next day.
Equal Time Offensive (January 2026)
Issued guidance that talk shows “motivated by partisan purposes” could lose their exemption from equal time rules — while making clear that conservative talk radio would remain exempt.
The Hypocrisy
FIRE’s Bob Corn-Revere noted that Carr previously opposed the FCC acting as “the nation’s speech police” but now embraced exactly that role. Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called Carr “the most ideological chairman we’ve ever had — and the most political.”