Newt Gingrich says the 2 'most effective ways of communicating with Trump' are through 'Fox & Friends' and 'Hannity'
- The best way to communicate with President Donald Trump is through the Fox News programs "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity," Newt Gingrich told The New York Times Magazine.
- Trump is known to be an avid cable news consumer, despite his claims that he now has "very little time for watching TV."
- As recently as last weekend, Trump touted Fox News in a tweet and slammed its competitor, CNN.
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker, said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine that the best way to send a message to President Donald Trump is through his two favorite Fox News programs.
In a lengthy profile of Fox News host Sean Hannity, the Times cited several sources attesting to Hannity's influence on Trump - first during his campaign, and now as president.
"Occasionally, we'd talk on Sean's show knowing Trump was watching," Gingrich said. "The two most effective ways of communicating with Trump are 'Fox & Friends' and 'Hannity.'"
Although Trump has told reporters in the past that he has "very little time for watching TV," multiple media outlets have reported that he is an avid consumer of cable news, often watching both programs daily. Trump's early morning tweets also frequently echo programming from "Fox & Friends."
"If I'm trying to figure out how to communicate to the American people," Gingrich continued, "there are very few people who have a better understanding of the broad base, a better intuitive understanding of the kind of folks who elected Trump. He at least matches or surpasses Rush [Limbaugh] in that understanding."
Trump has offered frequent praise to Fox News, complimenting it as recently as Saturday in a tweet that compared the network favorably to CNN.
"@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly," the president said on Twitter. "The outside world does not see the truth from them!"
CNN's communications team fired back minutes later, tweeting, "It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news. #FactsFirst."