Donald Trump has long utilized conservative media as a strategic instrument to secure political victory, but as midterm elections approach, the former president and his allies have turned their criticism toward a primary fixture of that landscape: Fox News. With polling data signaling potential difficulties for his party, the president has expressed frustration that the network is doing little to assist Republican efforts.
The president has frequently taken issue with Fox News’s non-partisan polling operations. More recently, he has voiced complaints that the network does not provide enough airtime to his midterm campaign rallies, even when he deems them newsworthy. Trump has also characterized the network’s decision to interview Democratic candidates as an act of disloyalty. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, he wrote that Fox News is spending too much time platforming opponents of Republican candidates, suggesting this coverage is the reason the race remains close.
This sentiment is echoed by those within the president's inner circle. Peter Navarro, the former senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, has explicitly urged supporters to stop watching the network. Navarro’s criticism intensified following the departure of Maria Bartiromo, a noted Trump supporter, from the network last month. During an appearance on the pro-Trump network Real America’s Voice, Navarro argued that Fox News is attempting to undermine core elements of the Trump agenda, specifically citing on-air critiques regarding the president's tariff proposals. Other figures, including Steve Bannon, have accused the network’s leadership of harboring animosity toward Trump and the MAGA movement.
Despite these public tensions, the relationship remains complex. Fox News continues to dispatch reporters to cover Trump’s rallies and frequently broadcasts them, including recent events in Texas and Michigan. Furthermore, the network has provided favorable interview opportunities, such as a 25-minute segment on Sunday featuring Larry Kudlow, who temporarily assumed Bartiromo’s time slot. Kudlow used the platform to highlight Trump’s economic policies and offer encouragement to the former president’s campaign.
The personal ties between the network and the Trump orbit remain notable. On 23 October, Fox News anchors Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt held their wedding rehearsal dinner at the Mar-a-Lago Club with Trump in attendance. The subsequent wedding was attended by various figures from both the network and the Trump administration, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who recently joined the network as an on-air contributor.
Chris Stirewalt, an anchor and political editor for the center-leaning cable network NewsNation, spent more than a decade at Fox News before being pushed out as part of the fall-out from the network’s early-but-correct call of the state of Arizona for Joe Biden on election night in 2020. Stirewalt noted that despite the friction, the network remains central to the conservative media sphere. Stirewalt suggested that the symbiotic relationship between Trump and the network has historically survived such volatility, as both entities remain deeply linked within the broader conservative ecosystem.
Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s most reliable boosters, wrote in a post on X earlier this month that “@FoxNews should be exposing jihadists…not platforming them and whitewashing their terrorist agenda.”
“I think you’re on a roll,” he said. “I mean, you’ve been relentless. You’re campaigning. It’s herculean. You’re turning the tide, you’re getting voters out, you’re raising enthusiasm. The economy is booming. We’re the hottest in the world. Stocks are doing great. Drug prices are coming down. Oil is flowing through the Persian Gulf. I mean, I think in the last month, you may have turned this whole thing around.”
