Months after the Trump administration suggested ABC’s “The View” could be “pulled off air” for violating federal communications laws, the co-hosts of the long-running daytime ABC News program returned from their long summer break Monday for their 29th season, directly addressing cancellation speculation while viciously taunting the Trump administration, especially the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“Thank you from all of us at this table,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said during Monday’s season opener. “We are starting our new season, because we are very much here — and live,” she added, drawing chuckles from her fellow panelists.

When co-host Joy Behar joked that she was mentally “still on vacay,” Ms. Goldberg — directing a barb at President Trump — quipped that her colleague was not “dead,” while Alyssa Farah Griffin playfully suggested “this is an AI-generated Joy Behar.”

The show returned Monday after the five hosts took their usual summer break for the month of August. Shortly before the hiatus, a heated exchange between the all-female panel and the Trump administration White House sparked speculation that the virulently anti-Trump news talk show would face the same fate as the far-left “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which will end in May 2026 after CBS announced its cancellation this summer and the end of its late night franchise.

The fiery clash ignited in July after Ms. Behar claimed that Mr. Trump is “so jealous” of President Obama because “Obama is everything that he is not: trim, smart, handsome, happily married, and can sing Al Green’s song ‘Let’s Stay Together’ better than Al Green. And Trump cannot stand it. It’s driving him crazy.”

The White House responded by calling Ms. Behar “an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and suggested that the co-host “should self-reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump’s historic popularity before her show is the next to be pulled off air.” Mr. Trump also made comments suggesting that “The View” would be the next show to be canceled.

The situation escalated the following week when the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, while addressing the fallout from Ms. Behar’s comments, warned that there may be “issues” and “consequences that aren’t finished” for the embattled ABC News program.

“Look, it’s entirely possible that there’s issues over there,” Mr. Carr said during a Fox News appearance. “And stepping back, this broader dynamic, once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there’s a lot of consequences. I think the consequences of that aren’t quite finished.”

As chairman of the FCC, Mr. Carr has championed an investigation into claims that CBS’s “60 Minutes” “deceitfully edited” an interview with a then-presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, to her benefit. He also revived complaints over ABC News’s moderation of the September presidential debate — where David Muir and Linsey Davis were accused of fact checking when they’d agreed not to, and focusing topics on areas where Ms. Harris was strong — and Ms. Harris’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” Mr. Trump, a former NBC star who hosted the show twice, was not offered a slot but instead was giving free commercial time. 

Traditionally, “The View” has an all-liberal panel but for one conservative who feuds with the others. The clashes between Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck in the mid-2000s are legendary. Another conservative co-host, Meghan McCain, left the show, saying she was bullied by her liberal co-stars.

In recent years, however, “The View” has been under an increasingly harsh spotlight for its New York City-based hosts’ hard-left positions, at odds with many of the country’s residents, and its hosts’ intense dislike of Mr. Trump. A media watchdog group found that during the first seven months of 2025, the program failed to feature a single guest who “promoted conservative or pro-Trump policies.”

The Daily Beast reported in May that ABC News executives met with “View” stars and suggested they tone down their anti-Trump rhetoric, and were rebuffed — laying bare the harsh reality that the once-vaunted ABC News has little control over its own program.

Monday’s episode offered further indication that the hosts have no intention of softening their criticism of the administration. During the broadcast, the hosts vociferously critiqued Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent congressional hearing and the government’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

“It’s roadkill out of his freezer,” Ms. Behar said about Mr. Kennedy’s attitude toward Covid victims.

At one point, co-host Ana Navarro urged viewers to record Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducting immigration raids to “amplify the truth, so America can see what is happening in our streets.” 

“When you see human rights violations, when you see civil rights violations, when you see masked men dragging people through the streets and beating people’s dashboards in and windows in, film it,” Ms. Navarro said. She stressed, however, not to “get violent” or “play into the hands of Donald Trump and his minions. They want a confrontation. Be smart. Be truthful.”