A new report in The New York Times says the spring and summer have brought an autumnal chill to the relationship between Fox News and former President Donald Trump.
The Friday report noted that it had been more than 100 days since Trump was interviewed on Fox News, which during Trump’s presidency became his go-to network for getting his side of an issue out to the public.
The report noted that on April 13, Trump did a phone interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in which he listed a number of problems facing the nation, adding that they would not have happened “had we won this election, which we did.”
That was the last time he was interviewed on Fox News through Sunday morning.
On Monday, Trump vented about his treatment on “Fox & Friends.”
“@foxandfriends just really botched my poll numbers, no doubt on purpose. That show has been terrible — gone to the ‘dark side.’ They quickly quote the big Turning Point Poll victory of almost 60 points over the number two Republican, and then hammer me with outliers. Actually, almost all polls have me leading all Republicans & Biden BY A LOT,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“RINO Paul Ryan, one of the weakest and worst Speakers EVER, must be running the place. Anyway, thank you to Turning Point, the crowd & ‘love’ was AMAZING!” he concluded.
2024 Republican Primary poll:
Donald Trump – 53%
Ron DeSantis – 23%
Mike Pence – 7%
Ted Cruz – 3%
Nikki Haley – 2%
Mitt Romney – 2%
Liz Cheney – 2%Politico / Morning Consult / 07/15-17
— Paxlovid Rebound Poso ?? (@JackPosobiec) July 26, 2022
The Times buttressed its case for a falling out between Trump and Fox News by noting the many times the network could have interviewed and did not do so.
Will Donald Trump run for president in 2024?
For example, the report noted Fox News did not show Trump’s July 22 event at which he said “We may have to do it again,” in reference to running for president in 2024. Instead, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was interviewed by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. DeSantis was interviewed again by Tucker Carlson a few days later.
Last week, Fox News did not carry Trump’s speech in Washington, D.C., at an event for conservatives but did carry one from former Vice President Mike Pence.
The Times quoted “two people who have spoken to him recently,” whom the outlet did not name, as stating that Trump believes Fox News is deliberately ignoring him.
A chill to all things Trump is flowing from the top of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, the report claimed, citing what it said were “several people close to Mr. Murdoch’s Fox Corporation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
As evidence, they pointed to editorials in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal that criticized Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I spent 11 years at Fox, and I know nothing pretaped hits a Fox screen that hasn’t been signed off on and sanctioned at the very top levels of management,” said Eric Bolling, a former Fox host who is now with Newsmax. “Especially when it has to do with a presidential election.”
The core issue, the report said, is Trump’s continued insistence that he was jiggered out of the 2020 election, including a flashpoint from election night 2020 in which Fox called Arizona for President Joe Biden, which was later proven true but which angered Trump at the time.
The Western Journal reached out to Fox News for comment early Sunday morning but had not received any by the time of this article’s publication.
