President Trump accused Fox News of flooding the airwaves with Democratic candidates and doing little to help Republicans, saying that tilt is the only reason some midterm races remain close.
President Donald Trump unloaded on Fox News in a Sunday Truth Social post, charging the network with giving heavy play to opponents of Republican candidates ahead of the midterms. He said the cable channel was “spending far too much time putting on the OPPONENTS of Republican Party Candidates” and claimed those Republican hopefuls were being “absolutely ‘blurred out’ by the Media.”
Forbes reported the post and Trump’s broader complaint that Fox was “doing little to help” Republicans. He tied the coverage directly to the standings, writing, “That’s the only reason this Race is close, if it is indeed close.” Republicans trail Democrats in midterm polls for many key House and Senate races.
The same Sunday, Trump was traveling to Michigan for a rally while he planned to “fight” Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Earlier that morning he had still appeared on Fox in a phone interview with Larry Kudlow, boasting about packed rallies and the economy heading into the elections.
That split-screen is familiar. Trump remains a frequent Fox guest even as he hammers the network for what he sees as soft treatment of Democrats and thin coverage of his own events.
El-Sayed is locked in a close Michigan Senate contest against Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. Trump has already slammed Fox for interviewing El-Sayed and independent Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn earlier in October. He called a Martha McCallum sit-down with El-Sayed a “softball interview.”
Trump has accused El-Sayed of being a “jihadist” and a Muslim Brotherhood member. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied the charge and disavowed the Islamist organization. Last week his campaign said it would spend six figures on ads airing on both Fox News and Newsmax, including a spot that features conservatives and Fox personalities praising him.
Trump has long described his own rallies as the “hottest things out there” in “sold out arenas,” and he has complained that Fox has not given them enough attention. He has also boosted Newsmax as a further-right alternative.
The Sunday blast fits a longer pattern. In September Trump insisted, “MAGA, and REAL Patriots, will never like Fox!” During the 2024 cycle he repeatedly attacked the network for allegedly favoring then-primary rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. When he returned to office in 2025 he staffed the White House with former Fox hosts and contributors, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
A Media Matters for America analysis found Trump administration officials still made more than 1,300 spots on Fox networks in 2025. The left-leaning group tracks that airtime; the volume undercuts any claim that the White House has walked away from the channel.
Fox programming moves continue to draw close attention from Trump world, including the decision that named Larry Kudlow interim host of a key Sunday show. Kudlow was the very host who booked Trump the morning of the latest broadside.
Personnel fights have been personal. In one earlier flare-up, Trump went after Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich on Truth Social, saying he thought she was “absolutely terrible” and that “she should be working for CNN, not Fox,” after she opposed White House efforts to open the press pool beyond the traditional correspondents’ association gatekeepers. Breitbart detailed that exchange and the access fight behind it.
Network talent decisions keep feeding the same debate. Fox has added high-profile voices from the Trump orbit and from Democratic circles alike, from the move that brought on Karoline Leavitt as a contributor after her White House exit to other booking choices that leave primary voters wondering whose side the lineup is on.
Trump allies have openly questioned how the administration and campaigns should treat the network. One recent call urged a harder look at guest strategy, the same tension captured when Navarro pressed the Trump team on Fox access. The practical reality is that Republican officials still show up in large numbers while the president says GOP candidates are the ones being erased.
White House messaging itself has often chased Fox hits as a core rapid-response channel, a habit visible even in short-lived press shop runs that leaned on Fox appearances to close out the cycle. That dependence makes the coverage fight sharper, not softer.
Fox has also booked figures who undercut conservative trust, including the addition of Melissa DeRosa after her role in the Cuomo nursing-home episode, a choice laid out when the network brought DeRosa on air. Viewers who want clear lines see mixed signals instead.
Lachlan Murdoch controls the network; his father Rupert Murdoch built the empire. Trump’s complaint is not about ownership charts. It is about who gets the microphone when House and Senate seats are on the line and when Democratic candidates are presented as reasonable while Republican names recede.
Trump’s Sunday post put the stakes in plain language. If Republican candidates are blurred out while Democrats collect interviews and even buy ads that recycle Fox praise, the network’s choices become part of the battlefield. El-Sayed’s decision to spend six figures on Fox and Newsmax only underscores how valuable that real estate remains.
The president has kept the pressure on for weeks, from the October interviews with El-Sayed and Osborn to the rally-coverage complaints to the fresh Truth Social broadside. He is not asking for a blackout of opponents. He is saying the balance is wrong and that the imbalance has consequences in races that should not be close.
Voters who want secure borders, lawful order, and honest accounting from institutions can see the incentive problem. A network that courts Republican viewers while platforming the other side’s candidates at high volume invites exactly the backlash Trump delivered.
Fair coverage is not a favor. It is the bare minimum when control of Congress is on the ballot and one side’s candidates keep getting the softer seat.