Ron DeSantis just told the whole truth about Donald Trump and Fox News

Yup.

(Donald Trump)

Here’s Ron DeSantis on Donald Trump and Fox News — while campaigning in Iowa recently:

"[Trump’s] got basically a Praetorian Guard of the conservative media. Fox News, the websites, all this stuff. They just don’t — they don’t hold him accountable because they’re worried about losing viewers and they don’t want to have the ratings go down.”

Well, duh!

It’s not clear whether DeSantis just came to this conclusion or whether he just decided to voice it now — days before he looks headed for defeat in the critical Iowa caucuses.

(Sidebar: Trump hold a nearly 30 points lead over Nikki Haley in the Des Moines Register poll released Saturday night. DeSantis is in third.)

But, regardless, DeSantis has happened on a fundamental truth of this Republican party: Trump has been enabled — at nearly every turn — by Fox News and the broader conservative media universe. (I would include in that latter category Steve Bannon, NewsMax, One America News Network etc.)

On its face, the reason is simple (as DeSantis says): Donald Trump rates. Especially among conservative viewers who see him more as a cult-like leader than a standard politician. TV networks — especially cable — are motivated heavily by ratings. And so, you get a whole lot of Donald Trump.

That’s the simple a-to-b explanation. But astute viewers of Fox, in particular, will note that the network and the leading presidential candidate have had a back and forth relationship over the past few years.

In fact, Trump’s appearance on a live town hall this past week on Fox was his first live appearance on the network in more than two years. During that time, Trump regularly derided the network — primarily on his Truth Social website — as being insufficiently loyal to him.

Trump has been angry with Fox — publicly — since they called Arizona (rightly) for Joe Biden in 2020. The network was also forced to pay a massive $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation suit centered around its reporting on Trump’s false claims made about the 2020 election.

And, for a period of time following the 2022 election, Fox quite clearly made a pro-DeSantis turn in its coverage.

After his sweeping reelection victory, the New York Post — like Fox owned by Rupert Murdoch — ran this headline touting the governor as the future of the GOP:

So, yeah, it’s a little more complicated than it at first appears.

But I would suggest that DeSantis’ “Praetorian guard” comments carry two fundamental bits of truth in them. (And I still VERY much believe that Fox is interested in ratings — and Trump, still, rates.)

1. Though Fox and Trump have had a mixed relationship since 2020, there is NO question that Fox was absolutely instrumental in building the Trump cult in 2015 and 2016. While all of the cable networks did a LOT of Trump coverage, Fox’s was not only wall-to-wall but adoring. It was pumping him up as a radical outsider willing and able to shake up the political system — while at the same time deriding folks like Jeb Bush and other more establishment pols. Was this because Murdoch just plain liked Trump? Or because Trump rated? Probably some of both, honestly. But, there is NO question that when we write the history of the rise of Donald Trump, Fox News’ laudatory coverage will be a fundamental pillar.

2. Fox’s coverage of the country — not just the presidential race — has echoed Trump’s dark vision. Watch Fox for a day. You will see LOTS of reporting on violence in major cities. And the porous southern border. And out-of-control political correctness. This is the world (and world view) that Trump espouses. And, even as Fox is promoting this dangerous and dark vision of the world, it is NOT covering other newsworthy events — most notably the 91 charges against Trump. Consider this paragraph from a CNN report of polling done by the New York Times over the summer:

   “Polling released by The New York Times and Siena College on Monday found that only 5% of respondents who get their news from Fox News believe that Trump has ‘committed serious federal crimes,’ with an overwhelming 91% saying he has not done so. Meanwhile, 83% of Fox News-watching respondents believe that after the 2020 election, Trump ‘was just exercising his right to contest the’ results.”

   In this way, the backdrop of the presidential race (and politics more generally) is set for conservatives in a way that is deeply favorable for Trump.

Now, whether or not DeSantis can complain about these realities is another question. As I mentioned above, he benefited from favorable coverage from Fox — and a slew of appearances on the network — for much of the last three years.

So, DeSantis thinks it’s a problem because it’s not working for him. If he was the Fox darling, well, I doubt he would have the same concerns about the influence and impact of the conservative media.

But, just because it’s sour grapes doesn’t mean DeSantis is right. I think he is even more right than he knows, actually. Not only did Fox News protect Donald Trump — particularly against the four indictments he currently faces — but they helped create the Trump phenomenon back in 2015 and 2016 and painted the pro-Trump landscape on which all of the candidates are now running in.

It’s not determinative (as Paul Farhi notes in this Atlantic piece). But it’s pretty damn influential.