President Donald Trump continued to blast Fox News on Thursday morning, this time directly telling Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade that he is “not happy” with the conservative-leaning news network.
Appearing Thursday on Kilmeade’s morning radio show, the president eventually got around to addressing his recent criticisms of Fox, which had culminated in a Wednesday morning tweetstorm featuring Trump calling the network “HOPELESS & CLUELESS” for interviewing a DNC spokesperson.
“The New @FoxNews is letting millions of GREAT people down!” Trump tweeted. “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!”
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After taking aim at MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell for retracting a thinly sourced story claiming Russian oligarchs co-signed Deutsche Bank loans for Trump, the president seamlessly shifted to ranting about Fox News and his belief that the network hasn’t shown him sufficient loyalty.
“The polls are phony too,” he exclaimed. “The polls are phony too. And in all fairness, among my worst polls always is Fox. I have to say that.”
Kilmeade, who is known as a fervently pro-Trump cable star, jumped in to point out Trump’s recent critical tweets of Fox News, noting that Trump was “very upset” with the channel.
“I’m not happy with Fox,” the president groused. “Look, people think Fox is for me. Fox is good—look, Sean [Hannity] and Laura [Ingraham] and Tucker [Carlson]’s been really good. Well, Tucker’s a little tricky, but that’s OK. But he’s been very good.”
He continued: “Many of them, you know, you guys in the morning—Ainsley [Earhardt] and Steve [Doocy] and you. You’ve become—you’re a solid, I used to say, you’re a solid six or maybe seven. But you’re getting much better. You’re getting great.”
After Trump provided praise to the opinion side of the network—including Kilmeade—the Fox host noted that he and the president have been able to have disagreements since Trump hosted The Apprentice and that Trump “didn’t mind.”
“So, I don’t understand,” Kilmeade added. “If Fox comes out, if somebody comes on and is critical about one thing about you, it never used to bother you like that. Now yesterday, I read those tweets and was hoping to get you on today—you’re so kind to come on, I appreciate it—and I thought to myself, ‘What’s bothering you about it?’ Because our channel prides itself on diversity and getting everybody in so you don’t have to flip around.”
Trump, meanwhile, took that opportunity to not address his grievances about Fox News but rather to lash out at CNN, complaining that the network has gotten rid of its most loyal pro-Trump pundits before insisting that he won’t give CNN an interview because it would be “disloyal to my followers.”
Notably, while Kilmeade had Trump’s ear about his annoyances with Fox, the Fox & Friends personality did not explicitly stand up for any of the specific Fox employees that Trump has personally attacked.
