Trump Criticizes Fox News’ Political Leanings in New Sign of Tension

President Donald Trump has, in the past, openly showed Fox New his favoritism, commending the station as his most faithful new outlet. The network has been his first pick when it was time for him to give an interview, and the network was spared when he condemned scores of other media groups for promoting ‘fake news’.

As reported by Yahoo! News, now the president seems to have soured a bit, even on Fox News. On Sunday May 19th, the President took to Twitter to criticize Fox network, for the second time. Mr. Trump expressed dismay with the conservative network for interviewing Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor from South Bend, Indiana. “Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him. Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems,” Trump wrote. In an afternoon flurry of tweets, the President added, “Chris Wallace said, ‘I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance…fascinating biography.’ Gee, he never speaks well of me.” Nevertheless, the president proceeded to schedule an interview with the network for that evening.

The first indication that Trump was feeling tension with the network was last month. The president took a swipe at Fox after it hosted a town hall meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, another 2020 presidential contender. “So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @Fox News,” Trump tweeted. The audience “was so smiley and nice. Very strange,” wrote Trump, implying that he thought it was filled with Sanders supporters.

The stiffening ties with Fox News began after two former important Fox personnel departed from roles in his administration. Namely, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive, who resigned from a post as White House communications director in March, after only nine months on the job. The other is former Fox news anchor Heather Nauert, who served as spokeswoman at the State Department. Nauert was promoted to a senior State post and had been considered as a potential candidate to replace Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations. She withdrew herself from consideration in February, following issues with her nanny not having a proper visa. She also did not return to work as State Department spokeswoman, as of April. Two weeks ago, Trump nominated Nauert to serve on the panel which oversees granting fellowships at the White House.