Former President Donald Trump loaded up an attack on Fox News on August 30 with a series of videos posted to Truth Social. It was not just Fox News that drew the former president’s ire. Trump also leveled attacks at former Attorney General Bill Barr, Karl Rove and Marc Thiessen.
Trump also went after Rupert Murdoch, the chairperson of Fox Networks. In his posts, Trump labeled Murdoch as a globalist while linking the Australian-born billionaire to presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and former candidate Hillary Clinton.
“[DeSantis] was a Murdoch pick, just like Jeb Bush was a Murdoch candidate. How did that work out?,” Trump said in the video. “Just like Hillary Clinton. Murdoch liked Hillary Clinton, Crooked Hillary. And that was another pick of Murdoch.”
Trump used the series of more than 30 videos posted to the social media platform as a way to distance himself from what he refers to as the “anti-MAGA” crowd by invoking his “America First” policy views.
“I put America first. It will always be that way, so get used to it,” Trump said in one of the videos.
The former president trashed Fox News over hosting guest speakers Trump said no one wants to listen to and pointed at the most recent viewership numbers for the first presidential debate, of which Trump abstained.
New statement from Trump on Truth Social.#TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/zNwTM0r8aJ
— Freedom 🇺🇸🦅 (@PU28453638) August 30, 2023
Nielsen currently claims that around 12.8 million people tuned in to watch the debate, a far cry from the 84 million that watched Trump debate Hillary Clinton in 2016. That chaotic event is often referred to as the worst debate in American history despite setting a record for viewership.
Former Fox anchor Tucker Carlson aired a pre-recorded interview with Trump at the same time as the debate. While it is next to impossible to nail down accurate numbers of viewers, the interview has been accessed more than 255 million times. It garnered more than 100 million views in the first four hours after it was released.
Trump once had a positive relationship with Murdoch and Fox News, but that relationship soured during the defamation case filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News. In the lawsuit, Dominion alleged that Fox intentionally spread false information about election tampering during the 2020 election. Trump claimed that Dominion machines “flipped” votes from Trump to Biden in order to steal the election. Fox settled the suit for $787 million and has since distanced itself from the former president.
Trump has seen polling support among Republicans slip slightly since the GOP debate, but he still holds a significant advantage. As of August 30, the polling site FiveThirtyEight has Trump at 50.3% over DeSantis who holds a slim lead over other candidates, but is only polling at 14.5% support.
