Former President Donald Trump slammed Fox News for getting behind his opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Mediate reported. Trump simultaneously threw insults at the pair in his criticism of the network.
"Fox News gave up on DeSanctimonious. Now they’re pushing Birdbrain," Trump said of DeSantis and Haley, respectively, on his Truth Social.
"They just haven’t learned and probably never will!" Trump added. Despite Trump's assertion, Fox has covered the former president more than his competitors.
The truth is that in the five days preceding Nov. 2, DeSantis was mentioned 82 times, while Haley got 73 mentions. By contrast, Trump's name was uttered some 568 times.
Nevertheless, Trump has other complaints. In September, the former president laid into DeSantis and how Fox props him up. "Not only is DeSanctimonious looking to destroy your Social Security, including moving the minimum age to 70, and your Medicare, but today he had a killer story in the Washington Post talking about his really bad spending habits," he wrote on Truth Social.
"He’s gone, yet Fox has him all over the place, even on Hannity last night. They’ve actually picked another candidate, they just don’t know who it is yet...," Trump charged.
"Ratings Freefall! I’m America First, so it will never be me!"
Trump now believes that spot has been taken by Haley. Whether or not he's right about how they're handling his candidacy, Trump has tapped into a growing sentiment that Fox News Network is no longer a trustworthy source for conservatives.
The first inkling of this perhaps came on election night in 2020 when the network called Arizona for Joe Biden very early, the Associated Press reported. It was curious to make such a call as there were 3.4 million votes cast in the Grand Canyon State that night.
The final count came down to only 10,475 votes for Biden, a fact that would make it difficult to predict the winner accurately so early on. This was hardly a runaway victory that should have been announced on election night before all of the ballots could be sifted and votes counted.
Ratings fell off after that, and changes came to the network that eliminated 20 people, including two top executives. Fox has also taken a hit following the defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems, The Hill reported.
Probably the most questionable blunder from the network came in April 2023, when it abruptly fired its most popular host, Tucker Carlson, the Washington Examiner reported. The official narrative was simply that the network and host had "agreed to part ways," but the truth was easy to see as Carlson never got to say goodbye.
Loyal fans who tuned in to their favorite "Tucker Carlson Tonight" were instead met by a parade of temporary fill-ins until the network settled on Jesse Watters for the role. This move yet again set viewers at odds with their previously trusted news network.
If Trump isn't correct in fact, he certainly understands the sea change that has happened at Fox News in principle. Trump is still a favorite among conservatives, but there's an unwillingness to face that fact by establishment institutions, including Fox News.
