Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity as Trump awards Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk in Rose Garden ceremony. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Although Newsmax TV and One America News (OAN) have much smaller audiences than Fox News and Fox Business, they enjoy hardcore MAGA followings that view them as more pro-Donald Trump than Rupert Murdoch's right-wing media empire. Fox News and Fox Business, as some far-right Newsmax and OAN viewers see it, aren't pro-Trump enough.
Regardless, Fox News hosts — from Laura Ingraham to Sean Hannity to Jesse Watters — have often been strident cheerleaders for Trump's second presidency. Never Trump conservatives are much more likely to be featured on CNN or MS NOW.
But Salon's Sophia Tesfaye, in an article published on December 7, observes that even some Fox News hosts are starting to question Trump's handling of the economy.
"Donald Trump is preparing to launch his new 'affordability tour,' heading to Pennsylvania early next week to revive the worn pledge: 'I alone can fix it,'" Tesfaye explains. "It's the same nostalgia-driven promise that powered his 2016 ascent. But something has shifted for MAGA. Not only is the economy still grinding under the strain of inflation, high housing costs, and rising bills for energy and insurance, the messaging around those issues is starting to crack — even in places that once functioned as Trump's best bulwarks."
One of those "bulwarks," according to Tesfaye, is Fox News.
"The White House, for its part, is telling Americans one more time that they should really blame (former President) Joe Biden for anything and everything that feels off in American life," Tesfaye notes. "Meanwhile, the media ecosystem that once served as Trump's megaphone is notably less willing — or at least less able — to carry his tune. 'There seems to be an issue with the way Republicans are handling this affordability issue,' Fox News anchor Sandra Smith noted Friday, (December 5)."
Tesfaye continues, "Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump's National Economic Council, couldn't even catch a break on Fox News, where host Martha MacCallum grilled him this week about polling that places responsibility for the economy squarely at Trump's feet…. In another recent Fox News segment, Jesse Watters admitted bluntly: 'It's Trump’s economy now.… he owns it now.'"
However, Tesfaye points out that "Trump hasn't been abandoned by everyone at Fox News."
"Fox Business analyst Charles Payne tried his hand at some optimistic spin on Friday, arguing that 'ironically, the media may be overplaying their hand because all of this affordability stuff, as it fades next year when the economy takes off…. they are going to have to find a different story,'" Tesfaye notes. "That sounds suspiciously like wishful thinking, especially considering that 71,321 job losses were announced in November, taking the total to 1.17 million in 2025."
Sophia Tesfaye's full article for Salon is available at this link.
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