Former President Donald Trump renewed his attack on Fox News on Friday, accusing the network of downplaying the popularity of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
“FoxNews is promoting Ron DeSanctus hard and has little time for Real News,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The recent Fox poll, which must have been intentionally bad for me, had ‘TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious,’ but they barely showed it.”
“Aren’t there big, beautiful networks that want to do well, and make more money? FAKE NEWS!” he added.
Trump was referring to a Fox News poll published Sunday that showed him leading DeSantis by 15 points in the 2024 presidential hypothesis. Apparently, the former president felt the network didn’t give enough air time to the poll — which was mentioned on air at least twice, according to Forbes .
Trump has repeatedly attacked Fox News in recent months. While many network hosts continue to support him, some have become less sycophantic after the midterm elections. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the network, is reportedly trying to distance his media empire from Trump and is turning 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 some Fox News hosts endorsed a conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.
Trump recently called Fox News a “RINO Network” (Republican in name only), after court filings from the case allege that the star host and executive had sent text messages calling Trump’s 2020 election fraud “ludicous,” “off the rail,” and ” Mind blowingly nuts” when he publicly owes his trust to them.
DeSantis has not announced a 2024 presidential run but is expected to do so. Fox News’ hypothetical matchup shows Trump ahead of DeSantis, who is more than 20 points ahead of Nikki Haley, the only Republican besides Trump to throw his hat in the ring so far.