Donald Trump again raged against Comcast, threatening that the media giant should “pay vast sums of money” over its MSNBC programming.Trump has long railed against Comcast, but his post on Truth Social late Sunday appeared to have been triggered by the news that MSNBC was dropping Joy Reid and Alex Wagner from its primetime lineup.Trump directed much of his fire at Reid, a frequent critic, and wrote, “Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there.”Trump added, “Also thrown out was Alex Wagner, the sub on the seriously failing Rachel Maddow show. Rachel rarely shows up because she knows there’s nobody watching, and she also knows that she’s got less television persona than virtually anyone on television except, perhaps, Joy Reid.”Trump then went on to rail against MSNBC personality Al Sharpton and then to network parent Comcast. “This whole corrupt operation is nothing more than an illegal arm of the Democrat Party. They should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our Country. Fake News is an UNPARDONABLE SIN!”Trump has threatened Comcast before. In January, before he was sworn in, Trump ranted over Seth Meyers and said that Comcast “should pay a big price.” In recent days he also has raged that MSNBC was a “threat to democracy” and has previously called for it to be shut down.Since Trump took office, his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has opened an investigation into Comcast’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. He’s also revived an equal time complaint against NBC’s New York station over the Kamala Harris cameo on Saturday Night Live, a couple days before the election. MSNBC, meanwhile, is in the process of being spun off from Comcast, along with other cable networks, in a transaction expected to be completed later this year.CNN’s chief media analyst Brian Stelter asked in his newsletter today, “To what extent do Trump’s appointees and aides – eager to please him – take these social media missives as orders?”Trump has sought to further influence independent agencies like the FCC, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. Last week, he signed an executive order mandating that the agencies to submit draft regulations to the White House, as well as accept the president’s and the DOJ’s interpretation of the law.MSNBC is expected to announce this week that Reid’s show will be replaced by a new program hosted by Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders Townsend and Michael Steele, who currently anchor the Saturday and Sunday morning program The Weekend. The network also is eyeing an expanded role for Jen Psaki, possibly to take over the Tuesday to Friday 9 p.m. ET slot once Rachel Maddow returns to a once-a-week schedule in the spring.
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