As of December 17, Trump had tweeted a total of 613 posts that were directly connected to Fox News content, according to the report released Thursday by Media Matters for America, a nonprofit that monitors conservative media for misinformation. Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at the organization and the report’s author, issued a statement criticizing Fox News and Trump’s propensity to watch the network.
“More than ever before, Trump’s Fox fanaticism this year drove the federal policymaking process and political reality, with a tangible impact on the lives of the American public,” Gertz, the author of the report, wrote. Gertz’s analysis outlined month-by-month how Trump’s connection to Fox News appeared to impact his policies and decisions.
Trump has made no secret of his persistent attention to Fox News programming. The president regularly tweets direct quotes from various commentators, analysts and hosts on the network. At the same time, he has also repeatedly criticized unflattering coverage and polls from Fox over the past year. While the network’s opinion hosts have largely remained staunch Trump defenders, some prominent talent—including anchors Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, as well senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano—have drawn the president’s ire for their critical analysis and commentary.
Gertz’s report argued that Trump’s government shutdown at the beginning of 2019 was connected to opinion hosts on the network urging the president to do so. “In the months that followed, the administration appeared to pardon war criminals, decide whether to order military strikes, float sweeping policy changes, award a $400 million federal contract, and initiate federal investigations based on the advice the president was getting through his television set and in behind-the-scenes discussions with Fox personalities,” it asserted.
When it comes to Trump’s impeachment, Media Matters also argued this was connected to the president’s relationship with Fox News. “The House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment submitted in response to a presidential abuse of power that was driven at every turn by the network the president adores,” Gertz wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to Fox News and the White House via email for comment on the report.
“Our comprehensive analysis, based on my unique cataloguing of the feedback loop between President Trump and Fox News, shows that Trump’s affinity for the propagandistic channel he watches every day has dictated a host of major administration decisions,” Gertz told Newsweek in an emailed statement.
“The president’s top advisers are not government experts, but the people he sees on television,” he said.
As Trump has appeared to remain largely on positive terms with Fox News, he has also not held back from criticizing the network as well. On Sunday, the president attacked the network over a poll that showed 54 percent of respondents supported his impeachment.
“The @foxnewPolls, always inaccurate, are heavily weighted toward Dems. So ridiculous - same thing happened in 2016,” Trump tweeted. “They got it all wrong. Get a new pollster!”
Correction: The original headline and body of this article misstated the number of tweets issued by the president in response to Fox News broadcasts. The correct figure, as determined by Media Matters, is 613 tweets.
