Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of tweets denouncing Fox News, accusing the network of having forgotten “what made them successful, what got them there”.
“They forgot the Golden Goose,” Trump wrote in a tweet posted at midday on Thursday:
Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump).@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!
The tirade was posted after the president, who has refused to acknowledge his election loss to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, retweeted multiple comments from supporters, many of which expressed the view that they would instead be relying on right-wing cable channel and website Newsmax.
Late on Thursday, the top story on Newsmax.com was headlined “Sen. Ted Cruz to Newsmax TV: ‘Media Don’t Get to Decide Presidency’.”
Among Trump’s retweets was one by a user called “Appalachian Christian”, who said: “Suit yourself Left Fox 4 NewsMaxxxxx.”
Fox was one of the first news organisations to call the state of Arizona for Biden and has warned its readers that Trump’s claims of victory are false.
On Monday night, Fox host Neil Cavuto cut away from a campaign event hosted by the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at the Republican National Committee headquarters when McEnany said that Trump’s campaign team “wanted every legal vote to be counted”.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa – I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this,” Cavuto said from the studio.
Trump on Monday claimed without evidence that the network’s “ratings have completely collapsed.”
Trump’s embrace of Newsmax has however translated into a ratings boost, with viewership jumping from an average of 65,000 people before the election to 800,000 viewers of its prime time shows this week, according to Nielsen data quoted in the New York Times, which reports that the NewsMax app was the fourth most popular on the Apple App Store on Thursday.
Later on Thursday, however, Trump tweeted his praise for two Fox hosts, both long-time Trump loyalists, touting a “must see” segment by commentator Sean Hannity and a “confirming and powerful piece” by Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs.
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