After years of ups and downs, Trump is live on Fox News again
One of television’s longest-running soap operas is about to begin a new chapter.
Donald J. Trump has not appeared for a live interview on Fox News since April 2022, a nearly two-year period of chill between the former president and the network whose airwaves he once relied on to further his status at the top of the American right to reinforce.
During that period, all of Trump’s Fox News interviews were recorded, a notable precaution for a network that paid $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit fueled by the former president’s mendacious claims about the 2020 election That will change on Wednesday, when Trump will appear live on the network for a town hall in Des Moines ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
The relationship between Mr. Trump and Rupert Murdoch’s network has seen more drama than a season of “Real Housewives.” But Wednesday’s event isn’t just a watershed moment and a potential ratings winner for Fox News: It’s also the former president’s first live interview on a major news network since appearing on CNN last May, an event that drew harsh criticism for its size and speed of his unfiltered false claims.
Mr. Trump has not exactly been silenced. He declined invitations from several networks to participate in live Republican primary debates. And he has agreed to numerous pre-recorded interviews, including an appearance on NBC in September causes complaints of viewers berating the network for providing him with a platform.
However, his relationship with Fox News is extremely complicated. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that parts of the network seemed to be in flux.
In 2022, Fox News snubbed Mr. Trump’s rallies while offering admiring coverage for a rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. After Mr. Trump announced he would run for president again in November 2022, the network kept Mr. Trump off the air for five full months. When Mr. Trump returned for a taped interview with Sean Hannity last March, he received a cool reception from other Fox hosts; one network contributor called his appearance “absolutely gruesome.”
The slights angered Mr. Trump, who harbored a grudge against Fox for its early projection of Arizona for Joseph R. Biden Jr. on election night in 2020. Over the past year, the former president has crudely insulted Mr. Murdoch and denounced Fox as “fake news” and “hostile” in posts on Truth Social, his favorite social media platform. He has also grumbled to allies that the network made a mistake in settling the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, saying it was offering ammunition to other potential litigants.
In an interview, Bret Baier, Fox News’ top political anchor who is co-moderating Wednesday’s event with host Martha MacCallum, did not shy away from addressing the volatility of the relationship.
“We are one Truth Social post away from feeling different,” he said.
Despite the wariness, both sides found reasons to agree to Wednesday’s town hall.
Judging by his polling, many conservatives remain enthralled with Mr. Trump, and keeping the potential Republican nominee at arm’s length would erode Fox News’ credibility among a core audience. Although Mr. Trump has told confidants that he believes Fox News has lost some influence with Republican voters, it remains the highly rated cable network and home to influential conservatives such as Mr. Hannity and Jesse Watters.
Moreover, the town hall gives Mr. Trump a chance to delve into both his presidential rivals and one of his media bêtes noires: CNN.
CNN had previously announced that it would sponsor a Republican debate in Iowa on the same night, in the same city and at the same time (9 p.m. Eastern). Mr. DeSantis and Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump’s closest rivals in the polls, will be at that debate, but Mr. Trump boycotted the debate. Fox’s town hall allows him to divert attention and possibly score a TV ratings victory over CNN — which would also please Fox News.
Given the rough nature of a presidential campaign, Wednesday’s broadcast is unlikely to mark any lasting detente. One person with direct knowledge of interactions between the Trump camp and Fox News, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the relationship remains chilly.
Televisions on Trump’s plane once broadcast Fox News continuously, but that is no longer the case, the person said. The former president often asks to watch Mr. Hannity’s program, but sometimes prefers Newsmax, especially host Greg Kelly, a longtime acquaintance from New York political circles. Mr. Trump remains a fan of Mr. Hannity — and of Mr. Watters and Maria Bartiromo — but he dislikes “Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy, whom he recently described as “not nice as he should be.”
Mr. Baier said he had carefully courted Mr. Trump in recent weeks, raising the idea of a town hall by phone and at least once in person at his Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago.
“It’s not easy,” he said of the efforts needed to persuade Mr. Trump to agree to an interview. He said he encouraged the former president to ask “tough but honest” questions in a live setting.
“This will get us to the play-offs,” Mr. Baier said. “This is a time when voters need to see him live, in person, when it happens.”
So what happens when Mr. Trump repeats his baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged on live TV?
“We are ready to deal with it,” Mr. Baier said, noting that he disputed Mr. Trump‘s claims when the topic came up during their pre-recorded interview last June. “But if he spends all his time focusing on 2020 and not talking about what he wants to do as president, he has other problems.” (At the time, Mr. Trump said was not enthusiastic about Mr. Baier’s real-time fact-checking, calling it “annoying.”)
For Mr. Baier, President Biden is the next person on his list for a live, unfiltered interview. “We’ve had a request every two weeks since South Carolina, when candidate Joe Biden won the primaries,” he said. “We would love to do a town hall with the president. We would do that with confidence.”
Jonathan Swan reporting contributed.