US President Donald Trump berated NBC and ABC as “two of the worst and most biased networks in history”, adding he would support the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in revoking licences to their television stations.

The FCC issues licences to owners of television stations, which must be periodically renewed.

The networks “give me 97 per cent bad stories”, Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post on Aug 24, “despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest eight months in presidential history”.

“If that is the case, they are simply an arm of the Democrat Party and should, according to many, have their licences revoked by the FCC,” he added. “I would be totally in favour of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our democracy!”

Mr Trump also reached a US$15 million settlement with ABC over allegations of defamation.

FCC chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican, has opened investigations into Comcast’s diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and NBC’s relationships with its local broadcast affiliates.

NBC is owned by NBCUniversal, a Comcast company. ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Mr Trump also took aim at NBC during his first term. In 2017, he questioned whether FCC licences should be taken from NBC television stations after the network published a story saying he had called for a bigger US nuclear arsenal, something he denied saying.

A recent poll by The Economist/YouGov found that 56 per cent of respondents strongly or somewhat disapprove of Mr Trump’s handling his presidency, while 40 per cent strongly or somewhat approve.

The Aug 15-18 poll of 1,568 Americans had a margin of error of about 3.5 per cent. BLOOMBERG