Awkward: Trump Touts 'Fox & Friends' Bit That Didn't Say What He Says It Did
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Donald Trump celebrated a “Fox & Friends” segment on Sunday, saying the hosts were correct to praise the immense power of his political endorsements, when a Fox News host had actually been arguing the opposite.
“Rachel Campos-Duffy and Will Cain, two terrific people (along with Pete Hegseth!), were right this morning on Fox & Friends,” the former president wrote on Truth Social.
“Almost 99% of the people I support in a Republican Primary, WIN! ‘A Trump Endorsement will MAKE YOUR CAREER, A TRUMP FIGHT MAKES IT VERY DIFFICULT!’ Over 75,000 people came to our incredible Rally yesterday in South Carolina, despite an almost 100 degree temperature. It was amazing, THE PEOPLE WERE GREAT. Thank you Pickens!!!” he continued.
In fact, Campos-Duffy and Cain didn’t say this.
Hegseth’s fill-in, Joey Jones, actually argued to the contrary, as Mediaite flagged.
“A Trump endorsement is not going to make your career. A Trump refute is not going to kill your career,” Jones said. “Are you in line with Trump’s policies? That’s what’s going to matter to the American people.”
The discussion was prompted by Trump’s weekend rally in Pickens, South Carolina. Despite being in the home state of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally who did not vote in support of the former president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, the senator was booed from the stage.
Jones did go on to note that Republicans remain “very loyal to Donald Trump” but “they’re also not completely oblivious to what policies are and how they’re enacted.”
“You can go to states like Georgia and see politicians who are America First in their agenda that don’t have a good relationship with Donald Trump. And they’re very popular,” he said.
“You can go to states like South Carolina and see a career politician who’s viewed as a part of the military-industrial complex establishment, who probably sits in a very different place than Donald Trump on Ukraine, and even with Donald Trump standing there, they’re like, ‘No, we don’t need you around anymore.’”
In the November midterms, 82% of Trump-endorsed candidates won their races, according to a New York Times analysis. However, the Times noted, the large majority of those endorsements went to incumbents and candidates heavily favored to win.
In more competitive races, Trump did not fare well. Of the five candidates he backed in competitive House races, none won. And of seven races in six states in which Trump’s super PAC invested money, only one candidate prevailed.
