For decades now, Fox News has been a transformative factor in propping up the Republican agenda, with no shortage of criticism for its conservative spins and for the bigoted screeds of its primetime hosts.
The network has largely continued this tradition throughout the era of President Donald Trump, but for a commander in chief with increasingly totalitarian tendencies, nothing but unyielding submission and flattery will do.
Fox News fell short of that order in the eyes of the President, who went on a Sunday night Twitter rant against the network.
.@FoxNews just doesn’t get what’s happening! They are being fed Democrat talking points, and they play them without… https://t.co/mM0tlsd3mq— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1587936062.0
....Even the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats laughed at the Fox suggestion. No respect for the people running @FoxNews. But Fox keeps on plugging to try and become politically correct. They put RINO Paul Ryan on their Board. They hire “debate questions to Crooked Hillary"....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2020
....fraud @donnabrazile (and others who are even worse). Chris Wallace is nastier to Republicans than even Deface the Nation or Sleepy Eyes. The people who are watching @FoxNews, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry. They want an alternative now. So do I!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2020
Trump railed against employees of the network and called for an alternative outlet designed to parrot his viewpoints and justifications.
Like many of Trump's tweets, the rant may seem like his typically erratic, random anger.
But this time, there's a theory for the source that sparked it.
The Never Trump PAC Republicans for the Rule of Law released an ad skewering the President for his recent comments about the viability of injecting disinfectant as a potential cure for the virus that's killed over 50 thousand Americans.
Watch below.
This video from Republicans for the Rule of Law has clocked more than a million views since we released it less tha… https://t.co/K3XMoYsquz— Bill Kristol (@Bill Kristol) 1587856029.0
Beginning with a reminder of the death toll wreaked by the virus and the Trump administration's bungled response to it, the ad replays Trump's comments about the possibility of ingesting disinfectant as a cure, zooming in on Dr. Deborah Birx—one of the response directors on Trump's team—as she looks on with concern.
The ad reportedly aired on Fox News Sunday night—around the time the President began railing against the network.
@realDonaldTrump @FoxNews @CNN Exactly what is untrue in the Republicans for the Rule of Law ad that @foxnews aired? https://t.co/AQ2ZBJBhHz— Wild_Willie (@Wild_Willie) 1587939326.0
Psycho “President @RealDonaldTrump“ is raging that #FoxNews aired an Ad that makes him feel angry at Fox News for a… https://t.co/ztLqheQtS1— Chris Broekemeier (@Chris Broekemeier) 1587956109.0
Regardless of whether the ad was the source of Trump's anger towards Fox, it certainly reflected the people's anger towards Trump.
Unfit. Unwell. Unacceptable. https://t.co/1ZEbUT81zY— Julie #FlattenTheCurve Cohen (@Julie #FlattenTheCurve Cohen) 1587901715.0
Finally some Republicans spreading the facts about the insanity at 1600. Hope the million viewers of this video inc… https://t.co/vIswvIRX4R— Jill Wine-Banks (@Jill Wine-Banks) 1587967513.0
Praying that God removes him from office. https://t.co/4FYChRrKz6— Lisa (@Lisa) 1587994019.0
trump...an existential threat to our Nation and World...unfit, unstable, dumb, anti-science, anti-education (Betsy… https://t.co/lbUV83C2in— Wayne Gerenstein (@Wayne Gerenstein) 1587870738.0
Unfit. Unwell. Unacceptable. https://t.co/oujbadu9wi— Veronica Holiday (@Veronica Holiday) 1587991997.0
Trump has since claimed he was being sarcastic—a justification that Fox's own Bret Baier disputed.
For a deeper look into Trump's incompetence, check out A Very Stable Genius, available here.