Mar. 14, 2026, 4:59 PM EDT

President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman is threatening to revoke the licenses of news broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war.

Brendan Carr, the head of the agency, warned broadcast news organizations on Saturday to “correct course,” following the president’s rants over news coverage of his war with Iran, including stories about U.S. aircraft tankers sustaining damage in a strike.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr said in a post on X, without naming any media outlets. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

The FCC did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

Carr referenced a Truth Social post from Trump Saturday morning denying reports that five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were struck at a military base in Saudi Arabia. Trump directed his screed at the The Wall Street Journalwhich first reported the news, The New York Times and “other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media,” claiming they “actually want us to lose the War.”

In his own social media post later in the day, Carr pointed to Trump’s 2024 election win as an example of the lack of trust in the media from the American people.

“When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong,” the FCC chairman said.

Carr’s threat was met with immediate blowback from free speech advocates and political figures.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the threat “flagrantly unconstitutional.” Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a frequent Trump critic on the right, condemned it as “unacceptable and unamerican.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group, called Carr’s statement an “authoritarian warning,” adding, “Again and again, Carr’s tenure as FCC chairman has been marked by his shameless willingness to bully and threaten our free press. But even by Carr’s standards, today’s hypocrisy is shocking — and dangerous.”

Carr, an author of Project 2025 whom Trump hand-picked to run the FCC, has sought to use his powerful position to bend media outlets — and late-night talk show hosts — to the Trump administration’s will. Under his watch, the FCC has opened investigations into multiple news outlets and threatened to strip the licenses of broadcasting companies deemed to have covered the administration and the president unfavorably.

But his latest missive took the administration’s assault on what the president routinely calls the “fake news” a step further. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said in an X post, “This is a clear directive to provide positive war coverage or else licenses may not be renewed. This is worse than the comedian stuff, and by a lot. The stakes here are much higher. He’s not talking about late night shows, he’s talking about how a war is covered.”

Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly bemoaned the media coverage of the war. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused the press of being too focused on American troops’ deaths than the military’s successes.

“But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news,” Hegseth said. “I get it; the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality.”

He again criticized the press on Friday for reporting on the economic fallout of the war.

“Some in this crew, in the press, just can’t stop,” he said.

Late on Friday night, Trump railed against coverage of the war, saying on Truth Social: “The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Mar. 14, 2026, 2:12 PM EDT

President Donald Trump’s political action committee this week sent a fundraising email promising donors “private national security briefings” by the president himself and featuring a photo from the dignified transfer for U.S. service members killed in Kuwait.

“For the first time ever, I’m opening up spots on the National Security Briefing Membership,” reads the email, from Trump’s Never Surrender Inc. PAC.

“As a National Security Briefing Member, you’ll receive my private national security briefings, unfiltered updates on the threats facing America. The straight truth on border invasions, foreign adversaries, deep state sabotage, and every danger the fake news hides,” it continues. “You’ll get the inside scoop DIRECT from me, President Trump, the leader who’s rebuilt the greatest military in history, and put America First like no one else.”

The email includes a black-and-white version of an official photo taken by the White House showing the president in a white “USA” baseball cap saluting a transfer case during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on March 7.

Several links in the email lead to a donation page.

The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment on the fundraising email pegged to the Iran war and what the offers of “national security briefings” would entail.

Trump is not the first political figure to make offers of special access to big donors, Daniel Weiner, director of the elections and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice, noted in an interview with MS NOW.

“In this instance, obviously it would be a blatant violation of the law to disclose any sort of classified information or secret information to donors. But assuming that they’re not actually doing that, it’s hard to see that there’s anything illegal about any of this,” Weiner said.

But the use of a photo from the dignified transfer of U.S. troops who died in the line of duty to raise funds is notable.

“To have that imagery used for partisan advertising and fundraising, that’s a bridge, you know, a new bridge that we’re crossing,” Weiner said. “But it’s more of a question of norms.”

Mar. 14, 2026, 5:54 PM EDT

Iran is receiving “military cooperation” from Russia and China, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an exclusive interview with MS NOW on Saturday. He also accused the United Arab Emirates of allowing the U.S. to launch attacks on Iran from its territory

Araghchi said Iran has no intention of fully opening the Strait of Hormuz, a tactic that has sent global oil prices soaring. And he downplayed the impact of a recent U.S attack on military installations on Kharg Island, through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow.

He vowed that Iran will attack oil facilities across the Persian Gulf if the U.S. targets Iran’s oil infrastructure.

“I think our armed forces have already answered that they would retaliate if our oil and energy infrastructure are attacked,” Araghchi said. “And they will attack any energy infrastructure in the region, which belongs to an American company or an American company is a shareholder. So the reaction would be clear.”

Araghchi called Russia and China Iran’s “strategic partners” and said his country was receiving “military cooperation” from the two U.S. adversaries but declined to elaborate.

“That includes military cooperation,” he said. “I’m not going into the into any details of that, a good cooperation with these countries, politically, economically, even militarily.”

He also defended Iran’s attacks on its neighbors across the Persian Gulf, which the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have said included Iranian strikes on civilian areas. Araghchi accused the United Arab Emirates of allowing the U.S. to launch attacks on Iran from Dubai, Ras Al-Khaimah and other densely populated areas.

“It is clear that they are fired from U.A.E.,” he said, adding it was “dangerous” to “use highly populated areas to launch, you know, rockets against us.”

The U.A.E. responded late Saturday afternoon, saying Araghchi is perpetuating a “confused policy.”

“The UAE has the right to self-defense in the face of this terrorist aggression imposed upon it, yet it continues to prioritize reason and logic,” read an official Emirates statement posted on X, “the country maintaining restraint and seeking an exit for Iran and the region.”

Officials from other Persian Gulf countries have denied that they allow U.S. forces to launch attacks from civilian areas.

Araghchi denied claims from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had been wounded and “disfigured” in the Israeli and U.S. strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his wife and son.

“There is no problem with the new supreme leader. The system is working,” he said, adding, “Everything is under control.”