Trump’s Fox News throw down proves 'the wheels are coming off' his regime

On Tuesday, a conservative political commentator revealed clear signs of “the wheels coming off” the Trump administration. According to Jim Geraghty – senior political correspondent at the conservative outlet National Review – President Donald Trump’s growing fight with Fox News suggests major cracks in his movement as his “self-pity” soars to new heights.

Geraghty begins by noting Trump’s recent glowing appraisal of an emerging Fox competitor. “Heading to Kentucky! Will be landing soon,” posted the president. “Big Crowd. I’m watching it now on RSBN. The coverage is spectacular. In fact, it’s so good, that I don’t want to leave Air Force One.” This is in reference to Right Side Broadcast Network, a YouTube channel that has shared nearly every Trump rally or public appearance since 2015 and has been receiving no shortage of his promotion lately, while he’s vented growing frustration with Fox.

“If you want one more sign of how the wheels are coming off the Trump administration as the midterms approach,” writes Geraghty in the Washington Post, “examine the president’s increasingly frequent public tantrums about Fox News and his belief that the network, usually more than fair — some would say generous and gushing — in its coverage, is somehow betraying him and his party.” There are plenty of examples of Trump’s budding breakup with Fox. He’s complained about its occasional hosting of Democratic voices, claiming, “This is why MAGA, and REAL Patriots, will never like Fox!” He’s also lashed out over the network’s decision to fire Trump-loyalist Maria Bartiromo, who was reportedly canned after informing the White House that anchors had been instructed to stop platforming his lies. And at the same time, Fox has been pushing back with its growing willingness to criticize the president and his officials.

Fox has nearly a billion reasons to distance itself from the president. As Geraghty explains, “Trump has already cost the network a fortune. Without his 2020 stolen election nonsense, Fox would never have had to shell out that $787 million payment to Dominion Voting Systems.” This is in reference to a defamation lawsuit that hammered the network for promoting Trump’s election lies, and resulted in a noticeable programming shift. “You get the feeling that Fox News executives, talent and staff are getting tired of the president’s endless whining and attacks when they’ve offered coverage that any of his predecessors would envy,” writes Geraghty. As he concludes, “The relationship between Trump and Fox News may not end in a full-on acrimonious divorce. But things are definitely frostier, and less amenable, than at the start of Trump’s second term. And when the president keeps whining that even Fox News is being unfair to him, his self-pity has hit an amazing new height.”