Welcome back to Media Matters’ weekly newsletter. This week:
Bill Pulte's appointment to DNI causes dissension in the MAGA ranks.
Oil execs are sounding the alarm of a drastic and imminent price spike as right-wing media downplay risks; meanwhile the Fox cabinet is completely fractured as to whether or how to end the war.
Fox stands behind Trump policies that hurt American tourism.
Bret Baier said the press had a duty to scrutinize Trump family corruption — he’s given that topic 5 minutes of airtime on his Fox show in the 13 months since.
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This week's infighting
Megyn Kelly and Shawn Ryan discussed the Trump administration’s “total betrayal” of the MAHA agenda. During the interview, Ryan also said that “everybody” is gone from Team Trump, “except for Fox News, Mark Levin, Benny Johnson, and Dan Bongino.”
Ben Shapiro said Shawn Ryan’s political takes “have the informed maturity of a potato.”
War Room host Steve Bannondared Senate Republicans to block FISA reauthorization over Trump appointing Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence: “We dare you.”
Newsmax host Carl Higbie said the congressional Republicans who voted for the war powers resolution can “go pound sand. Maybe they’d be more welcome in Iran at this point.”
A caller into Megyn Kelly’s show said about Trump: “Support is dying as the days go by. We’re pretty much fed up with his BS at this point.”
Fox News buries Trump naming Bill Pulte, who has no national security experience, to oversee U.S. intelligence agencies
Citation
Molly Butler / Media Matters
This week, President Donald Trump named Bill Pulte, the administration’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence following Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation. While Trump typically muscles through his unqualified selections with the help of Fox News, early signs suggest that the propaganda network isn’t on board with Pulte’s appointment.
Fox devoted only 8 minutes of airtime to Pulte’s appointment in the first 24 hours following Trump’s announcement on Truth Social. The network’s evening hosts and Fox & Friends co-hosts did not weigh in on the story at all, a conspicuous signal that they aren’t currently willing to disgrace themselves by claiming that the scion of a real estate construction empire with no national security experience whatsoever should be overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies.
At least one person on Fox, Byron York, criticized the appointment, saying, “It seems like a pretty poor choice here. So I’m not sure exactly what explains it.” Ben Shapiro also criticized the appointment, saying Pulte is a “bad pick,” adding “The more fringy appointments by the Trump administration, I do not think that they’ve worked out very well.” Several Senate Republicans also criticized the appointment.
Pulte, however, is not without support in right-wing media. War Room host Steve Bannon and John Solomon praised the appointment. On Newsmax, Greg Kelly said, “A lot of people are murmuring, oh, he has no background in intelligence. Well, that is a good thing. That is good. He has a great brain.”
This week in stupid
Ben Shapiro: “For the sake of America, the Knicks must lose.”
Fox host Brian Kilmeade on Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee: “I’m not going to judge him.”
Fox’s Sean Hannity on the Iran war: “Can I put a timeline on it? I can’t.”
Trump’s Fox News cabinet is fracturing over whether or how to end the Iran war
Citation
Andrea Austria / Media Matters
With U.S.-Iranian negotiations stuck in purgatory, the hawkish hosts and contributors whom Trump listens to at Fox News have been weighing in on a potential peace deal. While the group was united in urging Trump to launch the war, it is now fracturing over whether or how to bring the conflict to an end.
Prime-time star and full-time Trump propagandist Sean Hannity is ready to brand any agreement the president makes as a victory. But other Fox figures Jack Keane and Marc Thiessen are calling for further military escalation if Iran won’t agree to Trump’s maximalist demands in exchange for minimal returns. And host Mark Levin has suggested that any negotiation that leaves Iran’s regime in place is a failure for the U.S.
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz provides a great breakdown of how Trump’s Fox cabinet is sizing up a potential deal to end the war with Iran. You can find that breakdown here.
We’ve been tracking how the increase in gas prices due to the war in Iran is hurting Americans. This week there were reports that oil executives warned the Trump administration that the war is likely to cause global energy prices to skyrocket in the coming weeks. This directly contradicts promises from right-wing media figures, who have said the conflict will actually lower fuel costs or that any rise in prices would be short-lived. You can read all about this here.
Excuse me?
Several right-wing media pundits praised the firing of CBS’ Scott Pelley and criticized 60 Minutes. Ben Shapiro said Pelley “reads stuff from a teleprompter on camera." Sean Hannity attacked Pelley for speaking out about changes to CBS News and blamed him for being fired. And Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany said60 Minutes losing its entire staff “may be a good thing.”
Fox News’ Special Report has devoted only about 5 minutes of airtime to stories about alleged influence peddling by Trump’s family members in the 13 months since anchor Bret Baier told an interviewer that the press “100%” had an obligation to report such stories.
Former commander-at-large of U.S. Border Patrol Greg Bovino: “Immigration and remigration, mass deportations, are the number one issue for the preservation of our culture, the preservation of our society, our values, our customs, our beliefs.”
A Fox Business panel suggested Democratic voters in Los Angeles are “as stupid as New York voters who voted for Mamdani.”
Fox stands behind Trump policies that are hurting America’s tourism industry
Citation
Andrea Austria / Media Matters
Reporting has made clear since the early days of the second Trump administration that the president’s immigration policies, as well as his trade wars and combative rhetoric against America’s allies, have cratered international tourism into the United States. Fox News has lined up in support of these administration policies and actions, and Fox personalities are now also expressing support for a new threat by the administration to pull customs officers from major international U.S. airports ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Since last year, several major press outlets have noted that international tourism to the U.S. has fallen. In February, The New York Times reported that in 2025, the U.S. was the "only major destination to see a decline in international travelers.” The paper went on to note that, “with increased scrutiny at the border, ICE violence and unpredictable policies, the new year isn’t looking better.”
Through this collapse in international tourism, Fox has continued to support Trump’s policies, as well as his rhetoric and trade war against America’s allies. For example, Fox justified the killing of two Americans at the hands of Trump administration immigration agents and defended Trump’s tariffs and his threats to seize Greenland.
The decline in international tourism has hurt the U.S. economy. Nonetheless, Fox continues to support its Dear Leader’s policies that are resulting in this slump.
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