Topline
Former President Donald Trump blasted Fox News—the right-wing network he once lauded—in a series of scathing posts Monday morning, attacking the network for letting go of host Tucker Carlson and “refusing” to peddle his debunked election fraud theories, as the former president looks to separate himself from both the network and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Former president Donald Trump doubled down on his attack against Fox News Monday morning.
Key Facts
Trump, who launched his 2024 campaign late last year, argued Fox News lost “plenty of money, prestige, and RATINGS” and are a “far cry from what they used to be,” after it parted ways with Carlson, Fox’s highest-rated host (last month, Fox Corp disclosed a $54 million loss in earnings in the first quarter of 2023, before Carlson’s exit).
In a series of posts on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called out Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen for celebrating DeSantis’ “tsunami of conservative reform” in a Fox News interview Monday morning, calling Thiessen—a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush—a “Bush flunky” and adding: “He sucks, & so does FoxNews.”
Trump also accused Fox News of “desperately pushing DeSanctimonious”—Trump’s nickname for DeSantis, who is speculated to launch a 2024 presidential campaign—claiming Florida’s GOP governor is “dropping like a rock” in early 2024 polling (multiple polls found Trump leads DeSantis in a hypothetical match-up, including among Florida voters).
Trump also attacked DeSantis directly, calling him a “dead man walking” without his endorsement in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial race, and arguing DeSantis is “pretty close to that again”—marking Trump’s latest dig on his former GOP ally, after repeatedly taking credit for DeSantis’ rise from congressman to governor.
Key Background
Despite frequent call-ins with Fox News’ morning talk show Fox & Friends and prime time interviews during his time in the Oval Office, tensions between Trump and the right-wing network have soured tremendously since he left office, and have ramped up in recent months. The former president and his allies were infuriated after Fox became the first TV network to project that President Joe Biden won Arizona, an election night call that proved correct. Trump slammed the network in February after he claimed it “barely” reported on its own poll that found Trump with a 15-point lead over DeSantis among Republican primary voters, lambasting the network as “FAKE NEWS” and arguing Fox promotes DeSantis “so hard and so much there’s not much time for Real News.” Weeks later, he directed his criticism at Fox Corp’s billionaire chairman Rupert Murdoch, accusing Murdoch of “aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA” after Murdoch admitted he wished the network more adamantly denied Trump’s baseless claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Tangent
Trump’s pushback against Fox came to a boiling point after court filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit revealed several Fox News hosts, including Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, did not believe Trump’s claims about the 2020 election, despite bringing guests on their shows who espoused the theory. In response, Trump called Fox News the “RINO Network,” reiterating one of his most common attacks, which he typically reserves for more moderate GOP lawmakers, calling them “Republicans in name only.” Fox agreed to pay Dominion a nearly-unprecedented $787.5 million to resolve the lawsuit last month.
Further Reading
Trump Blasts Fox News—Again—For Promoting DeSantis ‘So Hard And So Much’ (Forbes)
Trump Attacks Rupert Murdoch And Fox News—Again—Claiming ‘Destruction Of America’ Amid Defamation Lawsuit (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/05/15/trump-blasts-fox-news-over-tucker-carlson-ouster-claims-network-is-desperately-pushing-desantis/