Newsmax CEO Ruddy on FCC Cap: Trump 'Strongly Standing With Us'

Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy praised President Donald Trump for coming out swinging against his own FCC Chair Brendan Carr over plans that would allow major TV networks to significantly expand their national reach by raising local ownership caps.

"He's strongly standing with us, and he's saying no expansion on this cap," Ruddy told Monday's "National Report," adding the president's message could not be clearer.

"And it's the craziest thing I've ever heard: The FCC wants to allow these big TV networks, almost all of whom oppose President Trump, to have more reach and more consolidation and more power.

"It makes absolutely no sense."

Trump ignited the debate over the weekend, reposting a Newsmax story on Truth Social and declaring: "NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS. If anything, make them SMALLER!"

Trump warned that allowing network consolidation would let "radical left networks" grow even larger.

The Newsmax story detailed the network's opposition to the Nexstar-Tegna merger — a combination that, if approved, would have created the largest TV group in the nation.

"And it's not just the big networks," Ruddy said to host Shaun Kraisman. "Nexstar, a very liberal station group, they're looking for a merger that would give them 80% reach.”

Ruddy noted that Nexstar operates liberal cable news channel NewsNation.

"They have Chris Cuomo as their lead prime time host; 78% of their donations in the last campaign went to Kamala Harris; these are not friends of President Trump," Ruddy said.

"And our position is the FCC should not approve their merger," he added.

At issue is an FCC proposal to remove the federal ownership cap, which currently prevents networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC from owning stations that reach more than 39% of U.S. households.

Ruddy warned that lifting the cap — combined with the proposed Nexstar-Tegna merger — would fuel leftist media conglomerates.

"If people in New York were deciding what the local news in Pittsburgh was, or in Detroit, or in Cleveland, it's a very dangerous thing," Ruddy said. "If the FCC had done this rule change 10 years ago, President Trump would never have been elected."

Congress, not the FCC, set the 39% limit, Ruddy noted — and the commission has "no legal authority to change it."

That is a legal opinion shared by Vanderbilt Law School professor Brian T. Fitzpatrick — a respected conservative legal scholar and former law clerk to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — who filed an ex parte brief with the FCC.

Ruddy vowed that Newsmax would "certainly challenge" any attempt to bypass federal law.

With Nexstar's heavy support for Democrat candidates and its liberal-leaning NewsNation channel, Ruddy noted, a merger would overwhelmingly benefit political actors hostile to conservative viewpoints.

Trump echoed those concerns, writing that ABC and NBC are "a virtual arm of the Democrat Party" and "should be viewed as an illegal campaign to the radical left."

Ruddy said Trump's intervention gives momentum to a growing coalition opposed to lifting the cap, including CPAC, cable channel One America News, and multiple members of Congress.

Ruddy urged viewers to contact their congressman and senators to voice opposition to both lifting the TV cap and approving the Nexstar-Tegna merger.

"Call your congressman and senator: Tell them you support President Trump and smaller networks, saying you don't want the FCC to lift the cap, and you don't support the Nexstar merger," Ruddy said.

"It's very important that Congress hears from you."

Important: Let your congressman and senator know you oppose massive TV broadcast reach and consolidation, that you oppose lifting the TV ownership caps and oppose the Nexstar merger!

Call U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Also call offices of Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader John Thune to let them know you oppose Brendan Carr's FCC plan to end the TV ownership cap!