After failing to use the government’s might to bully Jimmy Kimmel off the air earlier this year, US President Donald Trump is now threatening to bring the force of law down on comedians who make fun of him.

This time his target is NBC late-night host Seth Meyers, who the President said in a Truth Social post Saturday, “may be the least talented person to ‘perform’ live in the history of television”.

The comedian hosted a segment last week mocking Trump’s bizarre distaste for the electromagnetic catapults aboard Navy ships, which the President said he may sign an executive order to replace with older (and less efficient) steam-powered ones.

Trump did not take kindly to Meyers’ barbs:

“On and on he went, a truly deranged lunatic. Why does NBC waste its time and money on a guy like this??? – NO TALENT, NO RATINGS, 100% ANTI TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL!!!”

It is, of course, not “illegal” for a late-night comedian, or any other news reporter or commentator, for that matter, to be “anti-Trump”. But it’s not the first time the President has made such a suggestion.

Amid the backlash against Kimmel’s suspension in September, Trump asserted that networks that give him “bad publicity or press” should have their licenses taken away.

“I read someplace that the networks were 97 per cent against me … I mean, they’re getting a license, I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said.

“All they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” he added

Trump’s  Federal Communications Commission director Brendan Carr used a similar logic to justify his pressure campaign to get Kimmel dropped permanently by broadcaster ABC, which he said could be punished for airing what he determined was “distorted” content.

Before Kimmel, Carr suggested in April that media company Comcast may be violating its broadcast licenses after MSNBC declined to air a White House press briefing in which the administration defended its wrongful deportation of Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

“You need to understand that he actually believes it is illegal to criticise him,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy posted on social media following Trump’s tirade against Meyers.

“Why? Because Trump believes he – not the people – decides the law. This is why we are in the middle of, not on the verge of, a totalitarian takeover.”