Trump says 'Fox & Friends' has 'gone to the dark side' after the show's hosts mentioned polls showing Ron DeSantis beating him in 2024
- Trump lashed out at the "Fox & Friends" talk show in a rant on Truth Social.
- He accused the show's hosts of botching his poll numbers "on purpose."
Former President Donald Trump on Monday slammed Fox News' morning talk show "Fox & Friends," calling the program "terrible" after one of its hosts questioned his poll numbers.
Trump launched an angry tirade over his Truth Social platform, writing, "@foxandfriends just botched my poll numbers, no doubt on purpose."
"That show has been terrible — gone to the 'dark side,'" the former president wrote.
He then accused the show of "quickly" mentioning a poll taken at Turning Point USA over the weekend, where 78.7%
of respondents chose Trump as the winner of the 2024 Republican presidential primary, compared to 19% who chose Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"They quickly quote the big Turning Point Poll victory of almost 60 points over the number two Republican, and then hammer me with outliers," Trump complained. "Actually, almost all polls have me leading all Republicans & Biden BY A LOT."
Trump was referencing a portion of the show in which two hosts weighed in on what the Turning Point USA poll meant in comparison to other polls, some of which have shown DeSantis could beat Trump.
"That is a little different than a couple of other polls we've seen over the past couple of weeks," host Steve Doocy said, referencing the Turning Point poll.
Doocy pointed to two polls — a Blueprint poll in Florida and polling from New Hampshire — which both showed DeSantis ahead of Trump.
"So it's like the young people who are activists at that event like the former president, but looking at these other polls, different answer," Doocy said.
Host Brian Kilmeade added that DeSantis showed "tremendous strength in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Florida" if the numbers were looked at "state by state."
In his Truth Social post on Monday, Trump also hit out at former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan for being a "RINO" and "one of the weakest and worst Speakers EVER." Ryan currently sits on Fox Corp.'s board of directors.
Trump's rift with "Fox & Friends" comes after rumblings that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire might be turning on the former president. For instance, the New York Post slammed Trump in a scorching editorial on Sunday, calling him "unworthy to be this country's chief executive again."
The Wall Street Journal, another Murdoch-owned publication, also called Trump "The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6" while praising former Vice President Mike Pence.
However, Trump's remarks about "Fox & Friends" mark a shift in the way the former president views the show. During his presidency, Trump was known to have fallen back on the show to do almost weekly calls.
In September 2020, Trump was also awkwardly rebuffed after he said he planned to call into the show "regularly" in the last weeks of campaigning.
"You may want to do it every week, but Fox is not committed to that," Doocy told Trump at the time, The New York Times reported. "We'll take it on a case-by-case basis."
Representatives for Fox News and Paul Ryan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.