Fox News contributor says network wants to move past Trump

Former president’s relationship with network has been fraying for years

Fox News and the rest of the conservative-leaning side of the media wants to “move on” from Donald Trump, a recent Fox panellist claimed.

"There’s no doubt that the majority of conservative media — Fox first and foremost — has a strong desire to move on from Donald Trump and are not paying enough attention and giving him enough airtime and ink as they used to," NPR journalist and Fox News contributor Mara Liasson argued on MediaBuzz on Sunday.

Liasson added that it’s a “different question” whether conservative voters are also tiring of Mr Trump.

The NPR reporter pointed to recent examples like Mr Trump’s often supportive hometown paper, the New York Post, derisively referring to him as “a Florida retiree,” and only covering his recent 2024 campaign announcement on page 26. The Rupert Murdoch-owned Post has previously praised Mr Trump.

The Independent has contacted Fox News for comment.

Mr Trump rose to prominence in part because of his ability to attract around-the-clock news coverage on Fox News and beyond, but the relationship between the former president and the network has been fraying for years.

Mr Trump’s team reportedly hammered Rupert Murdoch after Fox News called the state of Arizona for the Biden campaign during the 2020 election.

The media magnate has fired right back, publicly admonishing Mr Trump not to remain fixated on the past.

“It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past,” Mr Murdoch said at a News Corp stockholders meeting not long after the election. “The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future.”

Fox News rarely airs full Trump rallies anymore, and the former president is getting increasingly vocal in his criticism of his former ally.

He recently posted on Truth Social that he felt like the media was returning to its 2016 attitudes towards him, dismissing his political ambitions until he pulled off a shock win.

"Fox News and The Wall [Street] Journal were terrible to me, much like today, UNTIL I WON THE ELECTION. CNN, when they actually had great ratings, was terrific—They covered me no matter where I went, 24/7,” Mr Trump wrote.

The tensions between Trump and the conservative establishment at large have been growing since Mr Trump’s promised “red wave” of Republican victories didn’t materialise during the 2022 midterms.

As The Independent reported, election-denier candidates copying the Trump style fared particularly poorly across the country.

Mr Trump, apparently fed up with the GOP, has teased running as a third party candidate.