President Trump posted and retweeted more than a dozen tweets Thursday morning attacking Fox News, in a sharp rebuke to the network noted for its supportive coverage throughout his presidency. It was the latest sign that the president may be turning against his once-favorite network due to its coverage of his election defeat.
By noon, Mr. Trump had retweeted a flurry of messages from supporters slamming Fox for its election coverage and, as one tweet put it, for “pandering to the left.” Some of the tweets promoted Newsmax and One America News Network, two Trump-friendly media outlets notorious for promoting false and baseless conspiracy theories.
Both of those outlets have refused to declare President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the election — something Fox did on Saturday along with other leading news organizations. Newsmax in particular has reportedly seen its ratings jump since Election Day.
The president followed up with his own post mocking Fox News’ ratings and suggesting the network will suffer without him.
“Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there,” he wrote. “They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!”
CBS News has reached out to Fox News representatives for comment.
Fox News saw record ratings during Mr. Trump’s presidency, including the highest-rated month in cable news history in October 2020, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox was also the most-watched news network on election night, though its ratings were far behind CNN and MSNBC for coverage of Biden’s victory speech on November 7.
Mr. Trump started publicly challenging Fox News this year over its campaign coverage, including its polls that consistently showed the president trailing Biden, although he continued to praise the network’s loyal opinion-show hosts.
He ramped up his attacks after Fox became the first network to project a Biden victory in Arizona, a state Mr. Trump won in 2016. The Associated Press has also called Arizona for Biden. CBS News has not projected a winner in the state, but characterizes it as leaning toward Biden, who’s ahead by more than 11,600 votes with 99% of results reported.
Mr. Trump’s criticism of Fox trickled down to some of his supporters. People at a pro-Trump protest last week outside a Phoenix election facility were captured on video chanting, “Fox News sucks!”
Fox News coverage has pushed back on Mr. Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. The network on Monday quickly cut away from a briefing where White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeated the unfounded accusation that Democrats are trying to steal the election.
“She’s charging that the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting,” Fox News host Neil Cavuto said after cutting away. “Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.”
But some of Fox’s prime-time commentators, including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, have continued to question the election results on their shows.
