(UnitedVoice.com) – Former President Donald Trump and Fox News once had an excellent relationship. During the 2016 presidential race, the Republican often appeared on the network to get his message out to voters. The hosts were generally gracious to him, and owner Rupert Murdoch supported him. The same was true during the 2020 election.
However, relations between Fox News and Trump began to sour when the network announced that Joe Biden had won Arizona. In recent months, reports have indicated Murdoch doesn’t intend to support him in the 2024 race. Recently, Trump slammed the network after one of its hosts did a segment on his polling numbers and suggested viewers get their news elsewhere.
Polling Numbers Segment
On Monday, May 22, host Laura Ingraham aired a segment about Trump’s polling numbers in battleground states. Conservative pundit Chris Bedford joined the television host to discuss the data.
Bedford claimed Trump is trailing behind President Joe Biden in all of the current polling. He went on to say that doesn’t hold true when the president is up against Republicans like South Carolina Senator Tim Scott or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, “but [Biden] is consistently beating Donald Trump.”
Trump Lashes Out
During the segment, Trump took to TRUTH Social to slam Fox News for airing what he called a “hit piece” on him. The former president said that Ingraham’s ratings were going to plummet and criticized her for showing selective polling. He said other polls are showing he is going “MUCH better against Biden than ‘Rob,’” referring to Ron DeSantis.
Trump went on to point out that he’s leading DeSantis in primary votes by double digits. He called on his supporters to start watching Newsmax at 10 p.m. instead of Ingraham.
Poll Numbers
According to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, Trump is beating Biden by 7 points. FiveThirtyEight shows a number of other polls have Trump beating Biden, as well. Those polls include one conducted by McLaughlin & Associates that has the former president winning 47% to 43%, and so on.
Ingraham Compliments Trump
The night after angering the former president, Ingraham appeared to distance herself from the polling numbers segment. She talked about the upcoming batter between DeSantis and Trump, now that the former has declared his candidacy.
The Fox News host slammed mainstream media networks for calling Trump a “cult leader” and other insults. Ingraham pointed out that Americans like the former president because he’s the only candidate who has “credibility” on major issues such as China, immigration, and war, and he helped secure a Conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
Ingraham said DeSantis won’t have any shot at winning over voters if he tries to act like “Trump-light.” She finally pointed out that Trump has a proven track record of supporting America.
While the Fox News host might have spent Tuesday evening complimenting the former president, that might not be good enough. The network is already hemorrhaging viewers in the wake of Tucker Carlson’s show being canceled; a feud with Trump could further cripple it.
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