As usual, Donald Trump is mad.
This time his ire is directed at Fox News, an outlet that should be a natural ally for him.
Now Fox News is certainly not going to be on Trump’s Christmas card list.
The former president has been fuming since election night of 2020 when Fox called the Arizona race for Joe Biden early in the night.
The White House went apoplectic because they figured that the close tally in Arizona meant the state was still a tossup.
Donald Trump vs. Fox News: What’s the Latest Dustup?
Donald Trump believes that Fox News is still not giving him his proper adulation and respect. As a result, he is attacking the cable network on his social media app Truth Social.
“Fox News is promoting Ron Desanctus so hard and so much there’s not much time for real news. Reminds me of when they were pushing ‘JEB’! The new Fox Poll, which have always been terrible for me, has Trump crushing DeSanctimonious, but they barely show it. Instead, they go with losers like Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, and now even Yesper,” Trump posted.
Do You Understand All That?
Donald Trump gets so mad that he often types a stream of consciousness that doesn’t always make sense, so allow me to translate some of the murky parts.
Here Is What He Means
You know by now that Donald Trump has a nickname for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This is where “DeSanctus” and “DeSanctimonious” comes from. Trump believes that the Florida governor is too self-righteous when it comes to culture wars.
He thinks that Fox is giving DeSantis outsized media coverage. Trump considers DeSantis to be disloyal since the former president was instrumental in DeSantis’ election to the governorship in 2018 in an extremely close race.
Trump has used also the social network to target DeSantis and accuse him of hanging out with high school students at a party the future governor attended when he was a teacher at a prep school in Georgia.
Jeb Bush Is an Old Enemy
Next, Trump refers to “JEB,” which is a reference to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Bush has endorsed DeSantis, so Donald Trump is furious. With me so far?
Karl Rove and Paul Ryan Are on the List Too
Karl Rove is a Fox News contributor who worked as the deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush. Rove has been critical of Trump in the past. Paul Ryan is on Trump’s list because the former Speaker of the House said he would not support Trump for president and that Trump wouldn’t win.
Poll from Fox News Has Trump Up
Then Trump refers to a recent Fox News poll with him running in a hypothetical match-up against DeSantis. In that survey, Trump led DeSantis 43 to 28 percent.
Who Is Yesper?
Finally, we get to “Yesper.” This is a nickname for former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who did not live up to Trump’s expectations and was fired in 2020. Trump has said Esper would do “anything I wanted,” hence the “yes man” nickname. Esper has told Fox News’ Bret Baier that Trump is a “danger to democracy.”
Uh Oh, Now Fox News Is Fake
It’s amazing that in a single Truth Social post, Trump can air all of these grievances that come from slights against him. You would think that Trump will need Fox News coverage in the future for him to be successful during the 2024 presidential campaign. Now Fox is being labeled with Trump’s worst epithet – “Fake News.”
He Prefers Truth Social
It appears that Trump will continue to use Truth Social to communicate directly to his faithful. The app only has about two million active monthly users, but journalists pay attention to the “truths” that Trump posts daily. As a result of his media penetration through Truth Social, he doesn’t care if he insults Fox News.
Trump has been re-instated on Twitter and Meta’s social media sites Facebook and Instagram, but he prefers Truth Social at this point. We’ll continue to translate what Donald Trump says on his social network so you can understand what animates the former president.
Fox News is public enemy number one and that leaves only right-wing outlets Newsmax and One America News Network to carry water for Donald Trump.
They may want to bow down to the former president in case they get on his nerves during the campaign. Trump could have all three conservative news outlets on his naughty list, should they criticize him in the slightest.
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Author Expertise and Experience: Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
