President Donald Trump’s dramatic shift to taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously was prompted partly by Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s criticism, according to The Washington Post. Carlson seemingly called him out for “minimizing” the crisis last Monday. According to two White House sources in the Post’s report, a “turning point” for the president—who had been downplaying the outbreak for weeks—came when he watched Carlson’s show-opening monologue that featured the Fox host declaring that “this is real.”
After Trump adopted his new approach to handling the growing crisis, which includes him taking on a grimmer tone and admitting that it could be months before the country returns to normal, many Fox News personalities have followed suit while applauding the president’s newfound urgency.
