Fox News is pretending its 'lovers quarrel' with Trump 'never happened': ex-GOP strategist

11 January 2024

The Biden era has seen a great deal of reporting on tensions between right-wing Fox News and former President Donald Trump. In March 2023, for example, Trump angrily railed against Fox News on his Truth Social platform, slamming them as a "group of MAGA hating Globalist RINOS" who were "aiding & abetting the destruction of America."

Trump was especially critical of Fox News' Rupert Murdoch, who reportedly, was enthusiastic about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a presidential candidate. But that enthusiasm faded when DeSantis' presidential campaign floundered.

Newsmax tried to exploit those tensions, painting itself as the cable news channel that was more right-wing, more MAGA and more pro-Trump than Fox News. Although Newsmax enjoyed occasionally ratings surges, they didn't last.

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In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark, former GOP strategist Tim Miller stresses that Fox News' feud with Trump is looking like a thing of the past in 2024.

Miller recalls, "Fox had spent years as Trump's not-so-subtle propaganda arm — but following his 2020 defeat, a lovers' quarrel ensued. Trump pushed his Big Lie and demanded it be echoed by anyone who wanted to stay in his good graces. The network mostly obliged, but some of its stars became embittered with the man they had done so much for…. The feeling became mutual, with Trump trashing Fox for failing to bow to his every whim."

Trump's angry attacks on Fox News, Miller notes, "have had an impact at least on the margins for Fox, as Newsmax has retained more eyeballs than in the pre–Big Lie era."

But lately, the Never Trump conservative stresses, Fox News hosts like Jesse Watters have been acting like the feud with Trump "never happened."

Miller describes a recent Fox News townhall that Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum hosted as "one big primetime infomercial for the frontrunner" — a townhall held the same night as a GOP presidential debate hosted by CNN and featuring Trump competitors Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

"As a special bonus gift to Trump," Miller observes, "the network aired it simultaneously with the weird Earth Two debate over on CNN in order to help serve his goal of blocking out any and all attention for his quasi-competitors."

Tim Miller's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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