President Trump blasted Fox News for what he called a softball interview with Michigan progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, charging the network favors Democrats over Republicans and MAGA.
At a Monday rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, President Donald Trump went after Fox News for airing a lengthy sit-down with progressive Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and giving him wide latitude on the air. Trump followed up on Truth Social, naming host Martha MacCallum and saying the network has “totally lost their way.”
Newsmax reported that El-Sayed appeared Monday on Fox News’ “The Story,” where MacCallum pressed him on terrorism, Iran, Medicare for All, and campaign money. Trump cast the exchange as too gentle and asked why networks put figures like El-Sayed on air at all.
Trump told the Nebraska crowd the interview had just aired and that the host barely challenged the candidate.
"El-Sayed was interviewed just a little while ago on a certain network, I won't tell you which one,"
he said, before adding:
"They let this guy talk, talk, talk. They hardly fight him at all."
He kept the pressure on the same point: networks claim they show both sides, yet the other side does not return the favor. “Why are they putting these people on our television networks?” he asked. “They say they like to project both sides, but the other side doesn't project both sides.”
After the rally, Trump took the complaint to Truth Social. He accused the network of promoting Democrats while shorting Republicans, MAGA voters, and his own events, and he singled out the El-Sayed segment by name.
"All they talk about is Dumocrat Jihadists like El-Sayed, with his softball interview by Martha MacCallum, and the like,"
Trump wrote, then added:
"She never interviews me like that."
That complaint lands against a backdrop of earlier Fox News turmoil that has already tested audience trust, from MAGA supporters urge Fox News boycott after Maria Bartiromo exit to open fights over talent and access. Trump’s message was simple: the tone he sees given to progressive Democrats is not the tone he gets.
MacCallum’s interview was not a silent platform. She questioned El-Sayed’s “money out of politics” pledge while noting wealthy donors and outside spending. She pointed to a Los Angeles fundraiser hosted by Jeffrey Soros, nephew of billionaire Democrat donor George Soros, and to a $30 million spending pledge from the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority PAC.
El-Sayed did not duck the money question. He said he accepts lawful individual help.
"When individuals want to give to my campaign, I welcome their support,"
he told MacCallum. He identifies as progressive, backs Medicare for All, and his campaign website calls for breaking up large healthcare companies and lowering prescription drug costs. Those are the positions Trump labeled extreme, including calling El-Sayed a “total communist” in his broader critique.
Viewer frustration with Fox has flared before when anchors and executives collided with the base, including coverage of how Fox News cuts ties with Maria Bartiromo after weeks off the air and the later claim that Fox News fired Maria Bartiromo after she leaked internal censorship text. Trump’s latest broadside fits the same pattern: he expects tougher scrutiny of the left and equal time for the right.
El-Sayed is running for the open Michigan Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. His Republican opponent is former Rep. Mike Rogers. The contest is already closely watched, and the Fox appearance gave El-Sayed national exposure on a conservative-leaning network while he courts progressive donors and institutional Democratic help.
Former President Barack Obama is scheduled to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on Oct. 24. That visit will put another national spotlight on a candidate Trump says received kid-glove treatment on primetime cable. For voters tracking the race, the contrast is plain: one side books major surrogates and big PAC money; the other side watches a flagship network host a long interview and hears its own standard-bearer say the questions were too soft.
Network-brand fights have also spilled into White House access fights, including the episode in which Fox News and major networks halt White House pool coverage. Add the human toll around past scandals, such as the death of a former Fox News producer Jennifer Eckhart found dead at Florida home, and the picture is of a channel under repeated strain with its core audience.
Trump’s core charge is about incentives. He says Fox and similar outlets grant progressive Democrats long, lightly challenged segments while Republican and MAGA events get less respectful carriage. In Grand Island he framed it as a double standard. On Truth Social he made it personal to MacCallum and to the El-Sayed booking.
El-Sayed, for his part, used the Fox slot to defend progressive health policy and to draw a line between individual contributions he welcomes and the “money out of politics” rhetoric MacCallum tested against the Soros-hosted fundraiser and the Senate Majority PAC’s $30 million pledge. The candidate’s answers, and the host’s questions on terrorism and Iran, were part of the same Monday broadcast Trump called a softball.
None of that requires mind-reading. The rally remarks, the Truth Social posts, the interview topics, the donor facts MacCallum raised, the Rogers matchup, and the planned Obama stop in Detroit are all on the record. Trump wants harder questions and more balanced booking. Fox ran the segment. Michigan voters will decide whether El-Sayed’s progressive platform and donor network belong in the Senate.
When a network sells itself as the place that asks the tough questions, it should ask them of the left as hard as it asks them of everyone else, or viewers will notice.
