Kayleigh McEnany’s plan for joining Fox News has been put on hold for now, according to a report from The Hill. The former White House press secretary under Donald Trump‘s administration indicated in financial disclosure documents published Tuesday that she had an agreement in place to join Fox News this month — but a source told The Hill that those discussions had been paused.
On her termination report upon leaving the government, McEnany listed an “employment agreement with Fox News, starting in January.” That report was obtained by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Fox News told The Hill that McEnancy “is not currently an employee or contributor” at the network. Although the 32-year-old had initial conversations with Fox after the 2020 election about a role there, those discussions were put on hold. The source added that the network is open to hiring her in the future and does “not condone cancel culture.”
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McEnany would be just the latest Trump administration official joining the network. One of her predecessors, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, took a role as a Fox contributor after leaving the White House in 2019. Sanders has since launched a campaign for governor of Arkansas and is no longer working at Fox. Senior Trump adviser Hope Hicks also took a job at Fox after leaving the White House in 2018, only returning to work for Trump again later in his term.
Trump hired Bill Shine from Fox News as the White House communications director ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Other Trump administration officials who made frequent appearances on Fox News before joining the government were John Bolton and Scott Atlas.
McEnany worked at Fox News early in her career as a production assistant for Mike Huckabee’s show. She also made regular appearances on talk shows like Red Eye. She later became the spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and often appeared as a guest commentator on the network. During the 2016 election, McEnany worked as a CNN contributor, publicly calling Trump’s 2015 comments about Mexican immigrants “racist.” After the 2020 election, she made frequent appearances on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show discussing the unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and the campaign’s legal challenges.
Last month, CNN’s Don Lemon reminded her of her stint on CNN. When she refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory during a press briefing, Lemon said, “Do you know she also worked for — girl, bye! There is no other — girl, bye! Buh bye.” He continued, as reported by Newsweek, “I think we got this. You used to sit here on the set with us. I think we got it. When you sat here with us, you thought we had it. You were happy to be here. Now, we don’t know what we’re doing?”
