Former President Donald Trump accused Fox News host Laura Ingraham of running a “hit piece” on him by focusing on his poll numbers compared with prospective 2024 presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Trump was critical of Ingraham, who has been mostly supportive of him, after her 10 p.m. Monday show. The criticism is part of a longstanding series of claims Trump has made about Fox News, arguing that the network is attempting to bolster DeSantis over him.
“The poll your looking at now, which has me doing far better against Crooked Joe, was just put out by FOX, I am sure unhappily,” Trump also wrote, adding: “I’m also leading DeSanctus by over 40 points in Primary Voting. Watch Greg Kelly on Newsmax at 10:00 P.M.”
In Ingraham’s segment, she interviewed Chris Bedford, the executive editor of Common Sense Society, about the 2024 election and whether Trump would perform better than DeSantis or another GOP candidate in swing state polls.
“Joe Biden is running pretty badly behind a generic Republican figure like a Ron DeSantis or Tim Scott,” Bedford said on the show, referring to the South Carolina senator who launched a presidential bid. “But he’s consistently beating Donald Trump.”
The former president’s criticism of the network isn’t new. Since the end of the 2020 election, Trump and Fox have had a falling-out after the channel called that year’s presidential race in favor of then-candidate Joe Biden in Arizona.
In an interview with The Hill last year, Ingraham wouldn’t directly answer a question about whether Republicans should back DeSantis or Trump. Ingraham said that the GOP should focus on populist messaging despite who the candidate is.
Trump’s critical comment comes after Fox News last month parted ways with Tucker Carlson, its top-rated host, just weeks after Carlson interviewed Trump for his show for the first time. Few details about why Carlson, who has been largely supportive of Trump’s policies, left Fox News have been released so far.
In March, Carlson aired yet-to-be-seen footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach and asserted that the new footage largely disproves the Democrat-boosted narrative that the incident was a “violent insurrection.” The Fox host obtained those videos from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who previously said that more footage would be released to the public at an undisclosed date in the future.
Trump has also frequently criticized DeSantis, claiming that it was he who boosted the Florida Republican’s chances of winning in 2018 after giving him his endorsement. DeSantis, meanwhile, has been largely dismissive of Trump’s comments about him.
The Florida governor has not yet formally confirmed he’s running for president, although reports published Tuesday said that DeSantis will announce his presidential bid in a Twitter conversation with Elon Musk on Wednesday evening.
Polls have shown that DeSantis is No. 2 behind Trump in the polls, although he is beating out other declared candidates such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. Outside of polls, Trump has gained by far the most congressional endorsements of any Republican candidate.
The Epoch Times has contacted a Fox News spokesperson for comment. Neither Fox nor Ingraham have released public comments after Trump’s criticism.
Last week, Fox News responded to online rumors that claimed that it would part ways with host Ingraham amid claims that the network would be changing its primetime lineup in the wake of Carlson’s exit.
A spokesperson for Fox told The Epoch Times that “reports based on various tweets by left wing activists are wildly inaccurate” and that “Laura Ingraham, the top-rated woman in cable news, is now and will continue to be a prominent host and integral part of the FOX News lineup.”
It came after the Drudge Report, a formerly conservative-leaning website, reported that Fox hosts Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters would be joining the primetime lineup. Sean Hannity would be taking Carlson’s old 8 p.m. ET timeslot, the report said.
In response to Drudge’s claims, “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” the network said.
As for Carlson, the former Fox host said he’s planning to host a new Twitter-based show. But details about the program, including when or how long it would last, weren’t provided.
