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Donald Trump started Thursday morning like he usually does, railing about how “Crooked Joe Biden and his staff of Radical Left Lunatics” are conspiring to destroy his presidential campaign. He then took a break from harping about his legal troubles to direct his ire at Fox News, which is desperate for the former president to participate in the GOP primary debate its hosting next week.
“Why doesn’t Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot,” Trump wrote. “They just won’t do it! Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again…And then they want me to debate!”
Fox News has long been functioning as a MAGA propaganda arm, but Trump has consistently leaned on the network for even more favorable coverage. He’s recently been irked that it has devoted any time at all to Ron DeSantis. “Reminds me of 2016 when they were pushing ‘JEB!’” he wrote in February. “The new Fox Poll, which have always been purposely terrible for me, has ‘TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious,’ but they barely show it.”
The attack on Thursday might cause Fox News to sweat a little more than Trump’s typical jabs, however, given the uncertainty surrounding whether he’ll show up to the network’s debate next Wednesday. The New York Times reported earlier this month that CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace even dined with Trump shortly after he was indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith (the second time) in an effort to convince him to show up. Trump has long been playing coy about whether he will attend, and he reportedly told the network’s brass that he would consider it.
Trump has seemed particularly worried about his appearance, as of late. He whined about the lack of adequate air conditioning during an appearance in New Hampshire earlier this month. “I want to say officially for the press: It’s about 110 degrees in this room. Nice job with the air conditioning,” he said. “You know what the press will say? They’ll say Trump didn’t look well. He was extremely wet. It is 104 or 105 degrees in here. But we’re OK with it, right?”
The former president did indeed look extremely wet.
