Trump blames Fox News while his MAGA media allies blame everything but him

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President Donald Trump began election night by lashing out at Fox News. He implausibly tried to blame the conservative network for the GOP’s devastating midterm losses.

By the end of the night, though, Trump was on the phone with Fox’s anchors — underscoring just how much he relies on the network’s platform, even as he rails against its coverage.

Fox “bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse,” Trump declared on Truth Social shortly before midnight Eastern time.

But he didn’t repeat that hard-to-fathom talking point during his phone interview a few minutes later. Instead, he said “congratulations to the Democrats” and expressed surprise at some of the results.

He took one brief swipe at Fox while on the network’s air, calling Fox’s polling unit “terrible,” when in fact it’s highly respected throughout the industry.

Ellie Merritt for CNN

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Anchor Bret Baier defended his colleagues, remarking, “Tonight, actually, the results are pretty close to what the Fox polls showed.”

Trump’s “I thought they’d do better” call to Fox reflected a broader reckoning that began to take shape across the right-wing media world on Tuesday night.

“Sometimes you get your ass kicked, and deserve it. Tonight is one such time for the Republican Party,” radio host Buck Sexton wrote on X.

He went on: “Way too many mistakes. Bad messaging. Poor candidates. High prices. Unnecessary war that did not go as promises. We get up tomorrow and carry on. But there are lessons here.”

Tellingly, though, Sexton didn’t invoke Trump’s name.

To explain the GOP’s losses, which were more sweeping than many political prognosticators had anticipated, some Fox commentators and MAGA social media influencers cited Trump’s war in Iran, the resulting high gas prices, and other broken promises of the past two years.

But they did so gingerly, criticizing the president’s policies without quite bringing themselves to blame the president himself.

Baier asked Sean Hannity at one point, “If we as a country did not go into the war in Iran… is this a much different race tonight?”

“I think 100 percent,” Hannity said, then pivoted to defend Trump’s decision to start the war.

Fellow Fox host Laura Ingraham said Trump has had “an unbelievably successful set of political judgments, other than the Iran conflict, which has been really tough and not well explained — sorry, in my view — and I think the people just don’t like war. They just do not want to go to war.”

The Fox commentators were all too well aware that the president was probably listening as they spoke.

During the 5 p.m. hour on Tuesday, shortly before the first polls closed, Trump raged about Jessica Tarlov, the lone liberal host on “The Five.”

He called Tarlov “dumb as a rock” and said her voice is irritating. He also texted a rebuttal to one of the show’s other hosts, Greg Gutfeld, who dutifully read the message on air.

Tarlov treated it like a spammy campaign text and joked that he should reply, “STOP.”

She later responded to Trump further on X, writing, “Reality is a tricky thing and he should get better at dealing with it.”

As Fox struck a pessimistic tone about the GOP’s electoral performance, Trump also griped about the network’s polling questions and guest bookings, hinting that he might treat the network as a scapegoat in the days ahead.

“FoxNews Ratings are way down (27%!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats,” he wrote.

Trump accurately described Fox’s recent ratings decline, but he blamed it on perceived disloyalty. Media analysts have largely attributed Fox’s slump to GOP voter malaise, and Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch has blamed “viewer fatigue.”

Trump, seemingly in denial about his low approval ratings, claimed, “It’s them, not me — My numbers are better than they have ever been.”

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In reality, Trump is at or near record lows in numerous approval rating polls.

There have been some signs lately that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, the father and son who control Fox News, have been thinking about a post-Trump era and looking ahead to the 2028 presidential election.

But for the time being Fox and Trump awkwardly share a Republican base. When Trump complains about Democrats appearing on Fox’s air, he is voicing how some of Fox’s most ardent fans feel.

A few minutes before his call to Baier, Trump objected to the presence of former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on Fox’s pundit panel.

Trump wrote that de Blasio was “ranting and raving like a Lunatic.”

The former mayor actually talked about the power of a “populist economic message” in America and said many Republicans decided to vote for Democratic candidates in a form of protest against Trump.

CNN’s Liam Reilly contributed reporting.

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唐纳德·特朗普总统在选举之夜伊始便猛烈抨击福克斯新闻。他试图将共和党在中期选举中的惨败归咎于这家保守派媒体，这种做法令人难以置信。

但到了晚上，特朗普却与福克斯新闻的主播们通了电话——这恰恰凸显了他对该电视台平台的依赖程度，即便他一直在抨击该电视台的报道。

特朗普在东部时间午夜前不久在 Truth Social 上宣称：“福克斯新闻对这些损失负有责任，因为它不断地、持续地抹黑民主党反对派，甚至更糟。”

但几分钟后，他在电话采访中并没有重复这个令人费解的观点。相反，他说了句“祝贺民主党人”，并对一些选举结果表示惊讶。

他在福克斯电视台的节目中简短地抨击了福克斯，称福克斯的民调部门“糟糕透顶”，而事实上，该部门在整个行业中备受尊敬。

艾莉·梅里特为CNN报道

民主党人预计将控制国会，这无疑是对特朗普的一次沉重打击。

主播布雷特·拜尔为他的同事们辩护说：“实际上，今晚的计票结果与福克斯新闻的民调结果非常接近。”

特朗普在给福克斯新闻的电话中说“我以为他们会做得更好”，这反映了周二晚上右翼媒体界开始形成的更广泛的反思。

“有时候你会吃亏，而且是咎由自取。今晚对共和党来说就是这样的一次，”电台主持人巴克·塞克斯顿在X网站上写道。

他继续说道：“错误太多了。信息传递不畅。候选人素质低下。物价过高。发动了一场毫无必要的战争，而且战争的结果也与预期不符。我们明天会重新振作，继续前进。但这里确实有很多教训。”

但值得注意的是，塞克斯顿并没有提到特朗普的名字。

为了解释共和党遭遇的惨败（其惨败程度远超许多政治预测家的预期），一些福克斯新闻评论员和“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）的社交媒体影响者指出，特朗普发动了伊朗战争，导致油价高企，以及过去两年中其他未能兑现的承诺。

但他们小心翼翼地批评总统的政策，却始终没有真正指责总统本人。

拜尔曾问肖恩·汉尼提：“如果我们国家没有卷入伊朗战争……今晚的比赛结果会不会大不相同？”

“我百分之百这么认为，”汉尼提说道，然后话锋一转，开始为特朗普发动战争的决定辩护。

福克斯电视台另一位主持人劳拉·英格拉姆表示，特朗普“除了伊朗冲突之外，其他政治判断都取得了令人难以置信的成功。伊朗冲突非常棘手，而且解释得也不好——抱歉，恕我直言——我认为人们就是不喜欢战争。他们就是不想打仗。”

福克斯新闻的评论员们都非常清楚，总统很可能正在收听他们的讲话。

周二下午 5 点，也就是第一批投票站关闭前不久，特朗普对“The Five”节目中唯一的自由派主持人杰西卡·塔洛夫大发雷霆。

他称塔洛夫“蠢得像块石头”，还说她的声音令人厌烦。他还给节目另一位主持人格雷格·古特菲尔德发了条短信反驳，古特菲尔德也尽职尽责地在节目中读出了这条短信。

塔洛夫把它当作垃圾竞选短信，开玩笑说他应该回复“停止”。

她后来在X上进一步回应了特朗普，写道：“现实很棘手，他应该更好地应对现实。”

福克斯新闻对共和党的选举表现持悲观态度，特朗普也抱怨该电视台的民调问题和嘉宾安排，暗示他可能会在未来几天把该电视台当作替罪羊。

“福克斯新闻的收视率大幅下降（下降了 27%！），因为他们花了太多时间报道特朗普那些精神错乱的民主党人，”他写道。

特朗普对福克斯新闻近期收视率下滑的描述很准确，但他将其归咎于选民的不忠诚。媒体分析人士普遍认为，福克斯新闻收视率的下滑是由于共和党选民的不满情绪造成的，而福克斯公司首席执行官拉克兰·默多克则将其归咎于“观众疲劳”。

特朗普似乎否认自己支持率低迷，声称：“是他们的问题，不是我的——我的支持率比以往任何时候都高。”

图片报道：2026年中期选举

事实上，特朗普在多项民意调查中的支持率都处于或接近历史最低水平。

最近有一些迹象表明，控制福克斯新闻的鲁珀特·默多克和拉克兰·默多克父子一直在思考后特朗普时代，并展望2028年总统大选。

但就目前而言，福克斯新闻和特朗普尴尬地共享着共和党的基本盘。当特朗普抱怨民主党人出现在福克斯新闻的节目中时，他其实表达了福克斯新闻一些最忠实粉丝的心声。

在给拜尔打电话的几分钟前，特朗普还对前纽约市市长比尔·德布拉西奥出现在福克斯新闻的评论员小组中表示不满。

特朗普写道，德布拉西奥“像个疯子一样咆哮怒吼”。

这位前市长实际上谈到了“民粹主义经济信息”在美国的力量，并表示许多共和党人决定投票给民主党候选人，以此来抗议特朗普。

CNN的利亚姆·雷利对此报道亦有贡献。