Fox News decided not to broadcast former President Donald Trump’s full 2024 presidential campaign announcement Tuesday night, cutting away about forty minutes after it began.
The speech, which former Trump 2020 campaign spokesperson Sarah Matthews called on Twitter “low-energy and uninspiring,” began just after longtime Trump confidant Hannity went on air. After the namesake host cut into the broadcast, he tossed coverage to Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth and network contributor Mike Huckabee, who lavished praise on the speech.
“This looks like Trump in as good a form as you’ve ever seen him,” Hegseth said as the live picture feed of Trump continued to play on half the screen. Huckabee added: “The construct of this speech is pitch-perfect.”
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After four more guests weighed in with positive remarks, Hannity returned to the speech. The entire break-in lasted for 12 minutes—despite the host’s initial promise that the commentary would only last “a minute.”
Trump eventually walked away from the Mar-a-Lago podium at around 10:10 p.m., but Fox News didn’t bother to air his closing lines live during The Ingraham Angle. By that time, similar reactions to Matthews' had emerged online. Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, for instance, wrote in a tweet: “You try being high-energy when you’re running for President primarily to try to avoid indictment!”
Trump, who inspired a deadly insurrection as commander-in-chief, is under criminal investigations for a phony elector scheme, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, and for keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Perhaps the most notable response to Trump’s declaration that he wants his old job back came from the current occupant of the White House: Alongside a video posted on his personal Twitter account, President Joe Biden added the blunt caption, “Donald Trump failed America.”
