'Trump needs Fox News more than Fox needs Donald Trump' as his options dry up: D.C. insider

As the 2024 presidential primary season begins to heat up, Donald Trump is going to need a larger platform to keep all the focus on himself and off of his rivals, which means his war with Fox News may need to be set aside because his options are severely limited.

According to a report from the Guardian's David Smith, the on-again, off-again love affair between the former president and the ratings-rich conservative news network is now complicated as Fox's hosts are increasingly showing signs of throwing their support behind Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

Casting a shadow over what will happen is the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox for supporting the former president's lies about election fraud in his 2020 election loss.

According to former Republican National Committee chairman Micheal Steele, “It’s a toxic relationship."

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"They are good and bad for each other at the same time. You’ve got to look at it through that prism to understand what’s going on here. Fox can’t do without Trump and Trump ultimately can’t do without Fox because he knows, at the end of the day, that’s the media vehicle through which he will be able to reach the widest audience of his supporters," he explained.

Noted conservative pollster Frank Luntz agreed.

“Donald Trump needs Fox News more than Fox needs Donald Trump because Trump doesn’t have easy access to an uncritical media like he did in 2016," he explained. "There is no alternative for him. He can’t go to CNN or MSNBC. He does have to go to Newsmax, and that just does not have the reach of these other cable news channels.”

According to the Guardian's Smith, "Worse still for Trump, Fox News found a new Chosen One. It reportedly asked DeSantis to appear on air 113 times, or nearly once a day, during one four-month spell and was given exclusive access to his signing of a contentious election law. Reelected in a landslide last November, DeSantis is a culture warrior with a flair for 'owning the libs'. The attraction was obvious."

Former GOP campaign adviser Tara Setmayer added a cautionary note, stating, "Fox has already demonstrated that they will move and calibrate their news coverage based on what the audience demands and, as of right now, the demand still overwhelmingly is for Donald Trump. This an example of a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship. They need each other, whether they want to admit it or not.”

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