A businessman who succeeded thanks to the media before politics, Donald Trump draws heavily on the world of television and entertainment to form his administration, particularly at Fox News, the influential channel favored by American conservatives.
Popular Fox News weekend morning host Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon; a star surgeon from TV shows, “Dr Oz”, to manage health insurance; the former boss of American wrestling, Linda McMahon, at Education; and a former reality TV star on MTV, then elected to the House of Representatives then left for Fox Business, Sean Duffy, to direct transport: as during his first term, Donald Trump does not skimp on the use of figures better known for their media experience than politics to form his team. The Senate must still approve these choices.
Donald Trump “is a creature of the media, he has existed in the tabloids since the 80s. One of his claims to fame was his reality TV show +The Apprentice+, he managed to pass himself off on television as a man successful businessman”, underlines Reece Peck, professor at New York University, and author of “Fox Populism”.
“The lesson he draws is that media power is political power (…) We can make fun of it, but I believe that generally, he showed that this theory was effective” , he adds to AFP.
– Back and forth –
The media observatory MediaMatters, classified on the left, denounced the return of “sliding doors” between Fox News, the channel of the empire founded by conservative mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the White House.
In addition to Pete Hegseth and Sean Duffy, Tom Homan, among others, is responsible for implementing his policy of mass expulsion of migrants after having been director of border control (ICE) and collaborator of the channel, where he defended the positions by Donald Trump on immigration.
“This shows that Fox News has a lot of influence. The channel functioned during his administration (2017-2021) as a kind of state television which constantly praised him and attacked his enemies,” underlines Matthew Gertz , one of the authors of MediaMatters. Contacted by AFP, Fox News did not react.
The practice of going back and forth between the media and the White House also concerns Democratic administrations and more centrist channels like CNN, or which have adopted a very critical position against Donald Trump, like MSNBC.
But the way in which Donald Trump has interacted for years with Fox News, in which he shares the conservative and anti-establishment positioning of certain columnists, is unique.
Whether he praises it or criticizes it, sometimes sharply, the future 47th president of the United States, aged 78, is an insatiable viewer of its broadcasts, cited in lengths of tweets or publications on its Truth network Social.
When he was at the White House, he sometimes appeared on the flagship show “Fox and Friends”. When he pardoned soldiers accused of war crimes, he credited Pete Hegseth, who had campaigned in their favor on the channel, for this decision on his Twitter account.
– “Always central” –
Another key figure at Fox News, Sean Hannity, was compared to a “shadow chief of staff” at the White House as he had direct access to the president.
During the 2020 presidential election, Rupert Murdoch's channel made the Trump camp furious by attributing, rightly and in front of all its competitors, the victory to Joe Biden in the key state of Arizona.
In the weeks that followed, Fox News echoed conspiracy theories about fraud in favor of the Democrat, which led it to have to pay the staggering sum of $787.5 million to put an end to defamation lawsuits from voting machine manufacturer Dominion, at the center of the false accusations.
Accused of stoking Americans' fears by shining the spotlight on problems linked to insecurity or immigration, which it denies, Fox News saw its audiences rise thanks to the presidential election, and has widened the gap over its competitors CNN or MSNBC.
The campaign has seen the role of influencers and podcasts grow to the detriment of the major cable channels, which are losing momentum, but according to Reece Peck, “Fox News still occupies the central position in the conservative media landscape” and imposes its themes on it.
