President Donald Trump told his Twitter followers to watch “almost anything else” besides Fox News on Saturday, one day before his interview on the network. Trump’s first post-election interview will air on Sunday on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, with host Maria Bartiromo. Some followers were confused or even amused that Trump encouraged them not to watch that interview.
“[Fox News] daytime is virtually unwatchable, especially during the weekends,” the president tweeted on Saturday afternoon. “Watch [One America News Network], [Newsmax], or almost anything else. You won’t have to suffer through endless interviews with Democrats, and even worse!” Trump’s tweet got nearly a quarter-million likes, and thousands of retweets and quote-tweets overnight. Many responders were amused.
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.@FoxNews daytime is virtually unwatchable, especially during the weekends. Watch @OANN, @newsmax, or almost anything else. You won’t have to suffer through endless interviews with Democrats, and even worse!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2020
Not that long ago, Trump was overwhelmingly supportive of Fox News, watching the network every day and encouraging his supporters to do the same. He occasionally even called in to shows like Fox & Friends, speaking to the hosts via phone. Many of Fox’s opinion pundits were supportive of Trump.
Trump’s outrage at Fox News has built up slowly but has reached a new level following the 2020 presidential election. The network has reported the results of the election and has mostly avoided parroting the conspiracy theories Trump himself has been promoting on social media. This has angered the president enough to label the whole network “anti-Trump.”
Instead, Trump has thrown his support behind OANN and Newsmax, and his endorsements are making the two younger outlets rich. The Miami Herald reported that both networks saw a huge boost in viewership after the election, and The Associated Press reported that Newsmax’s ratings increased tenfold. Newsmax was founded by Trump’s long-time personal friend Chris Ruddy.
Why are you watching daytime TV on our watch? 260,000 dead and that’s all you have to do (besides golf)?
— BearWearsaMask (@carebear1179) November 29, 2020
Both Newsmax and OANN have been unwavering in their support of Trump, and have pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election results. The networks take the president’s false claims as fact, even when there is no evidence to support them and plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Many commenters on Trump’s tweet questioned why he was getting so involved in the inner workings of the cable-news industry, and why he was watching so much TV to begin with. As president, they argued that he should not have enough time to watch TV, and should rely on his official intelligence briefings for information. A few also questioned whether Trump was trying to prevent people from seeing his interview with Bartiromo, which airs at 10 a.m. ET on Fox News.
