In his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel had suggested Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.

When announcing that it would pull Jimmy Kimmel’s programme, the TV station operator Nexstar Media Group called comments the comedian had made about the far-right activist Charlie Kirk’s death “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”.

Supporters of Donald Trump have praised the decision, and the White House deputy chief of staff called it an example of “consequence culture”.

But what did Kimmel actually say to raise the ire of the Maga movement?

During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel appeared to suggest Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.

“The Maga Gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said.

It appears this was the comment that most angered Trump supporters and officials.

In an interview on Wednesday, the Trump-appointed head of the US media regulator, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States (FCC), said it appeared to be a “concerted effort to try to lie to the American people”.

Brendan Carr went on to call Kimmel’s comments an attempt to “play into a narrative that this was somehow a Maga or Republican motivated person”.

Carr went on to threaten that if action was not taken against Kimmel, there would be “additional work for the FCC ahead”.

He added: “It’s long past the time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves … say: ‘We’re not gonna run Kimmel any more … because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibly of fines, or licensed revocation from the FCC’.”

The Democratic senator Ed Markey called it “censorship in action”.

“The FCC chair threatens ABC and Disney over Kimmel’s comments. Hours later, he’s off air. It’s dangerous and unconstitutional. The message to every media company is clear: adopt the Maga line or the Federal Censorship Commission will come after you,” he added.

Kimmel also mentioned reaction to the death of Kirk on his Tuesday programme, saying “many in Maga-land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk”.

Referencing the vice-president JD Vance’s comment while guest-hosting Kirk’s podcast, Kimmel said “the president and his henchmen are doing their best to fan the flames, so they can I guess attack people on the dangerous left”.

The Hollywood Reporter has said Kimmel was preparing to address the backlash on Wednesday night’s show and explain how his comments had been taken out of context. Its report says he was not intending to apologise for them.