Donald Trump Takes Aim at Fox News Ahead of New Hampshire Primary

Donald Trump lashed out at Fox News, alleging the channel is "one-sided" in its coverage of him.

Trump slammed the broadcaster on his Truth Social media platform, accusing it of bias towards his Republican presidential primary opponents.

"Hard to believe how one-sided FoxNews is - What a difference from the past (Likewise The Wall Street Journal!). No wonder the Republican base no longer cares about them. It was all about Ron DeSantis, and now it's the BIRDBRAIN SHOW, but the curtains are coming down on that one on Tuesday evening. MAGA!"

Newsweek has approached The Wall Street Journal and Fox News along with the Trump and Haley campaign teams for comment via email.

The 'birdbrain' reference was a dig at his New Hampshire GOP primary opponent, Nikki Haley. DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday and endorsed the former president.

Haley and Trump will face off in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, with many media outlets speculating if the former South Carolina governor can pull off an upset due to more a favorable demographic than in the Iowa caucus.

Polling generally indicates Trump is comfortably ahead in the Granite State.

Trump has been more critical of Fox News ever since the 2020 presidential election and his false claims that he won it. His relationship with the Murdoch-owned outlet remains complicated.

Trump did not make a live appearance on the network from 2022 until earlier this month when it held a town hall in Iowa in direct competition with a debate between Haley and DeSantis on CNN.

Joe Scarborough, host of the MSNBC show Morning Joe, said it was a "softball" event. Host Laura Ingraham has also called on Haley and DeSantis to drop out of the Republican race and back Trump.

In September last year, Lachlan Murdoch took over from his father Rupert Murdoch as the head of Fox and News Corp, with the latter taking a step back from his duties at the head of the organization and empire he helped shape over seven decades.

The decision came after Fox settled a massive claim brought by Dominion, paying the voting systems company $787.5 million. Dominion said Fox broadcasted lies about its machines, saying they were involved in a plot to steal the election from Trump.

Fox said that "all we ever did was provide viewers the true fact that these were allegations that were being made," according to lawyer Erin Murphy, the Associated Press reported.

There has been no evidence that Trump was unfairly cheated out of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Rupert Murdoch grew frustrated with Trump in the aftermath of the election, court documents from the Dominion case showed.

In an email, the media mogul wrote that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani were becoming "increasingly mad," a term that means 'crazy' rather than 'angry' in Murdoch's native Australia.

More recently, Fox News cut away from a Trump speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in December to counteract Trump's election claims. "As you heard, many untruths," Fox host Arthel Neville said. "The 2020 election was not rigged. It was not stolen."
Trump said before the Iowa caucus that Fox just "doesn't get it" and criticized it for using a CNN poll.

However, audiences of the conservative media network generally poll favorably to Trump.

Trump is charged with 91 counts across four indictments in Washington, D.C., Georgia, Florida, and New York. Some of the charges relate to his alleged attempts to overturn the election. He has said the charges are politically motivated and pleaded not guilty to all of them.

Fox News viewers appear to agree. A poll by The New York Times and Siena College in July last year showed 91 percent of those surveyed who said they get their news from Fox News do not believe Trump has not committed any federal crimes.

Former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Michael Steele told the British newspaper The Guardian in March last year that Fox News and Trump share a "toxic relationship."

He said: "They are good and bad for each other at the same time. You've got to look at it through that prism to understand what's going on here. Fox can't do without Trump and Trump ultimately can't do without Fox..."