Donald Trump’s surprising, anti-Fox News Tweets over the weekend angrily criticized the network for inviting on too many Democrats and citing New York Times reporting, but what apparently set him off was when the channel accidentally broadcast a bar full of soccer fans swearing at him.
That’s according to a new Associated Press report [1] citing members of his inner circle.
Trump’s unexpected, heated criticism of Fox News sparked furious online speculation as to what, exactly, would drive him to attack his favorite cable network so publicly on Twitter.
…a “source” of information (ask the Times what they paid for the Boston Globe, & what they sold it for (lost 1.5 Billion Dollars), or their old headquarters building disaster, or their unfunded liability? @FoxNews [2] is changing fast, but they forgot the people who got them there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2019 [3]
Citing two anonymous advisers, the AP story says “it was not clear what Trump was specifically responding to,” in his Tweet about “changing fast.”
But the report notes the president “was particularly annoyed by Fox correspondent Greg Palkot’s live report from a sports bar in France, where patrons erupted in a ‘F— Trump’ chant.”
The obscenity-laden chant erupted behind a Fox News reporter who was getting reactions from soccer fans about the US national team’s victory in the Women’s World Cup final.
“The president’s frustration with the network has grown in recent months,” the AP reports. “He has angrily told confidants he is confused about why Fox News sometimes ‘goes negative’ in its coverage of his administration when it features an unflattering portrait of his White House, the advisers said.”
In addition, the story said: “Trump was particularly annoyed at Fox’s coverage when he saw his ties to billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein being played up on the other networks.”
Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told the AP that he Trump seems to take the title of shows like ‘Fox & Friends’ literally and doesn’t understand when all of the network’s broadcasts don’t echo it. “Fox has real journalists who ask real questions, like Chris Wallace,” Sesno pointed out. “If he thinks the ‘no spin zone’ is going to be the no criticism zone, he’s right most of the time, but not all of the time.”