Yesterday, during his tweet storm of hating on America, one of Donald Trump’s targets was Fox News’ Shepard Smith who, apparently, did not show the blind loyalty to Trump he thinks he deserves.
This was not the first time Smith has been targeted in a Trump tweet. Nor is Smith the only target of Trump’s ire these days. Earlier this month, we reported that Trump has been obsessing over Fox’s insufficient loyalty in private, too. He has also rage tweeted about Fox News anchors Arthel Neville and Leland Vittert.
But in his tweet attacking Smith yesterday, Trump made the not-so-subtle threat that he might stop watching Fox altogether.
Watching Fake News CNN is better than watching Shepard Smith, the lowest rated show on @FoxNews. Actually, whenever possible, I turn to @OANN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019
File that one under “After Sean Hannity follows through with his pledge to undergo waterboarding for charity.”
(Trump caricature by DonkeyHotey via Creative Commons license)
UPDATE (from Ellen): In a possibly related development, the Reliable Sources newsletter reports, "two Facebook pages have popped up and spent $70,000 on ads encouraging older Americans to "make the switch" from Fox News to the far-right OANN." It is not clear who owns those pages.
Yes, NewsHounds got some fresh hate mail for Shep from at least one person thinking she was writing to Fox News. I always think that’s an indication there’s plenty more from people who can actually figure out how to contact Trump TV.
I’m guessing the backlash from the Trump Faithful is why I don’t see Smith on the air covering breaking news but I imagine he’s coordinating it behind the scenes.
Obviously, his tweet is an empty threat because Trump needs his Fox News pundit sycophants like Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham, Faulkner, etc. to continually suck his teeny weeny appendage (toes people! toes! 🤣).
Shep? I’ve always questioned why Fox News keeps him. Twitter feeds like #FoxNews and #MAGA often rant that Shep (and episodically others like Cavuto and Geraldo) should be fired for insufficient sycophancy. I expect Trump’s tweet to stir the hate up again.