Former President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on Fox News on Monday, accusing the network of downplaying his popularity over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
“FoxNews is promoting Ron DeSanctus so hard and so much that there’s not much time left for Real News,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The new Fox Poll, which have always been purposely terrible for me, has ‘TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious,’ but they barely show it.”
“Isn’t there a big, beautiful, Network which wants to do well, and make a fortune besides? FAKE NEWS!” he added.
Trump was referring to a Fox News poll published Sunday that showed him leading DeSantis by 15 points in a hypothetical 2024 presidential face-off. Apparently, the former president feels the network didn’t give enough airtime to the poll ― which was mentioned on air at least twice, according to Forbes.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Fox News in recent months. While many of the network’s hosts continue to support him, some have become noticeably less sycophantic in the wake of the midterm elections. Rupert Murdoch, the network’s owner, has reportedly sought to distance his media empire from Trump and is turning instead to DeSantis, Trump’s potential rival for the 2024 Republican nomination.
And according to court documents released Monday, Murdoch admitted under oath during a deposition for Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against the network last month that several Fox News hosts had endorsed conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.
Trump recently called Fox News a “RINO Network” (Republican in name only), after court filings from that case revealed that star hosts and executives had sent text messages calling Trump’s 2020 election fraud lies “ludicrous,” “off the rails,” and “mind blowingly nuts” while publicly lending credence to them.
DeSantis has not announced a 2024 presidential run but is widely expected to do so. Fox News’ hypothetical match-up showed Trump well ahead of DeSantis, who, in turn, was more than 20 points ahead of Nikki Haley, the only Republican besides Trump to throw her hat in the ring so far.
