When things aren’t going well for President Donald J. Trump Fox News has a few tools in its arsenal to keep its viewers terrified, paranoid and glued to their television sets. One of the network’s biggest propaganda weapons of mass distraction is the fear of a communist revolution in the United States.

So far this year the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) endorsed 150 candidates in primary elections for federal, state and local offices banking 38 wins. Last week in New York City nine of the ten candidates backed by the DSA won their races in deeply blue districts.

Although the DSA is further to the left the Democratic Party on many issues it would be a stretch to call the political organization communist. There’s nothing in the political movement’s platform that would indicate the DSA is planning to seize the means of production or outlaw private property rights.

Fox News has seized on the DSA’s use of the term ‘socialist’ as an indication that the organization is secretly plotting to topple the largest free market economy in the world and replace it with a totalitarian Soviet style managed economy.

This would be quite the feat in a country with 33 million small businesses, a high rate of home ownership (65.2%), and where roughly 156 million Americans own publicly traded stocks.

Americans also love to buy a lot of products and services as over 70% of the U.S. economy is based on consumer spending. The United States is about as far away as a communist economic model as an any economy could be but that is not going to stop Fox News from manipulating and terrifying its viewers.

The network is desperate to distract its audience from the reality of Trump’s failed conflict in the Middle East, high gas prices, rising inflation and the president’s obsession with his building projects.

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Trump’s proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the U.S. and Iran is so dreadful that even the network that helped get him elected cannot muster much enthusiasm for it.

The producers at Fox & Friends trotted out several experts who said the pending agreement was worse than no deal between the two countries. Brian Kilmeade even snapped an experienced military expert who tried to downplay the agreement’s shortcomings.

Sean Hannity shifted his focus to criticizing the newly opened Obama Presidential Center rather than try to promote the deeply flawed MoU. The cast of The Five spoke about it in vague terms but spent far more time and effort on what they were called the socialist revolution in the Democratic Party.

The only holdout was Jesse Watters; a man so dim he once asked during an episode of The Five if seals could breathe out of water. Seals are covered in fur and have puppy-like faces - two obvious signs of mammalian traits.

In the four and a half years I’ve covered Fox News I have never seen the network abandon Donald J. Trump as they did last week. Normally Fox will simply ignore stories it cannot spin as it did during the Israel-Hamas conflict, the many scandals surrounding the Epstein files, and countless embarrassing gaffes and alarming social media posts made by President Trump.

Instead of pretending the MoU didn’t exist multiple Fox News hosts and guests openly criticized it. It was shocking to witness as this is incredibly unusual for a network that thanked its viewers for voting for Trump and enthusiastically celebrated his inauguration.

Fox News is the Trump administration in many ways as over 20 former Fox News hosts or contributors have government positions in the president’s second term. While several former Trump officials, such as Kayleigh McEnany and Kellyanne Conway are now Fox News employees.

There is no line between the propaganda network and the president’s mind as Trump has been known to change policy soon after a Fox News host suggests it on air. The president has also posted slogans, conspiracy theories and policy ideas on social media minutes after they were broadcast on Fox News.

Most of the pushback against Trump’s MoU came from the folks on Fox & Friends. The corporate heads at Fox News have the most influence over the popular morning show than any other programming.

It seems that the corporate leadership or even the Murdoch family is trying to send the president a message since they know he’s a devoted fan of the morning show.

Other topics the network spent a lot of airtime covering last week:

* The socialist takeover of the Democratic Party

* European World Cup attendees falling in love with America

* Liberals lack of patriotism

* How the FBI foiled a terrorist attack planned for the UFC fight at the White House.

There was little talk of the affordability crisis or domestic issues, but Fox did mention that Ukraine managed to strike military targets in Moscow. Fox has gone weeks without including much of anything about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This week’s newsletter is solely dedicated to how the network framed the pending MoU between the United States and Iran. It’s so unusual for Fox News to openly criticize the Trump administration that I felt it was far more important to cover this than the usual ‘Democrats are terrible’ schtick on the network.

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The Fox News propaganda machine normally promotes the same triumphant rhetoric for its glorious leader. The network portrays President Donald J. Trump as a master negotiator, a maverick and an unconventional leader who is changing the world through his unique personality and force of will.

All of Trump’s flaws are excused as part of his genius. His many deficiencies are completely ignored. The network also pretends that he is incredibly popular with the American people.

Last week for a moment in time the network’s enthusiasm for Trump started to wane. Laura Ingraham couldn’t hold her frustration in any more after weeks of avoiding the conflict in Iran.

Sean Hannity mostly sat back and let his guests talk about the conflict rather than share his own opinion. The folks on The Five appeared annoyed that they weren’t talking about Jill Biden, Rosie O’Donnell or a transgender athlete. The cast of Fox & Friends continued to express their doubts and slight misgivings about the conflict as they have since the first missile strike in late February.

The outlier last week was Jesse Watters a man who will justify anything Trump says or does and then completely forget he did so the next day.

Fox News also continued to attack Democratic candidates in multiple races across the country. I’ve included a chart at the end of the newsletter that shows how much airtime the network spent on each race.

This week’s newsletter will be solely dedicated to how the network handled the dramatic shifts last week in the Iran War.

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Last week the folks on Fox News promoted Republican candidates as if they were public relations specialists hired directly by their campaigns to create negative ads about their opponents. As we approach the midterm elections Fox News is ramping up its propaganda to aggressive and unapologetic Agitprop (Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party) levels.

As they have done in past elections Fox tends to focus on candidates that will get the biggest emotional reaction from its viewers rather than focusing on tight races. The race for the U.S. Senate seat in Iowa could be a nail bitter but the Democratic candidate, Josh Turek, is an incredibly likable Paralympic athlete and former state representative.

Fox has put its focus instead on the U.S. Senate race in Maine between popular incumbent Susan Collins and Graham Platner, a deeply flawed man with no governing experience. Although Platner has a devoted following he also has major liabilities which Fox News is happy to exploit.

Susan Collins has won her seat multiple times even when polls showed she might lose it. If Fox News really wanted to make sure that the Senate stays in Republican control it would shift its focus to races like Iowa instead of Maine.

The network knows segments about Platner, and his troubled past will rev up the base and keep eyes glued the screen.

The network also made an abrupt pivot in California as it became more and more obvious that the former reality star and crystal connoisseur Spencer Pratt wasn’t going to make it to the general election in the Los Angels mayoral race.

Instead of championing Pratt or even tearing down his opponents Mayor Bass or Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, the network attacked California’s vote counting process.

Pratt, for now, won’t become the second coming of their glorious leader Donald J. Trump.

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Last week the folks at Fox News put most of their focus on promoting Republican candidates across the country. The network didn’t praise GOP hopefuls as much as it trashed Democrats.

James Talarico, a U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, was presented as a politically radical girly soy boy who munched on vegan burgers and thought that God was transgender. Graham Platner, a U.S. Senate candidate in Maine, was a Nazi, communist and a trust fund brat all at once.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was a radical socialist in close cahoots with the ultimate Marxist mastermind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The only Republican candidate who was mentioned far more than his Democratic opponents was Spencer Pratt. Fox News treated his main rival, Karen Bass, the current mayor of the city, as an afterthought.

Pratt was championed as the next MAGA messiah who would galvanize Angelenos to a path out of socialist mismanagement of the second largest city in America. Pratt was Trump 2.0 - an angry aggrieved privileged white man who would solve problems simply by insulting people and attacking the most marginalized.

Fox News also continued its confused and uneven coverage of what President Trump calls his ‘minor excursion’ into the Middle East.

Jesse Watters presented the war like any 12-year-old might discuss his favorite video game. Sean Hannity continued to insist that every hiccup and stalled peace talk was all part of Trump’s master plan.

The folks on The Five largely ignored the war while stuffed shirts on Fox & Friends were the only hosts on the network who continued to show tiny glimmers of doubt. The lone voice on Fox News that appears to approach the war with any sense of gravitas is Trey Yingst the chief foreign correspondent currently stationed in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Fox News also spent a lot of air time criticizing former First Lady Jill Biden for statements she made about her husband in a book about her time in the White House.

Mrs. Biden was lambasted for saying she wondered if Joe Biden was having a stroke during his wretched debate performance against Trump. Jill Biden’s decision to have her husband visit a Waffle House after the event was portrayed as elder abuse and dangerously reckless. The term ‘Waffle House’ showed up 13 times in the transcripts from last week.

Segments that were critical of the Biden family took up 7% of the airtime last week.

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Fox News started last week predicting a massive U.S. military campaign that would crush Iran and end Trump’s gamble in the Middle East. Within 24 hours Trump declared another pause in the conflict which forced Fox News to pivot to more mundane topics.

By mid-week the war wasn’t even a major story. The network’s highest rated show The Five didn’t even include a single segment about the war for the entire week.

Fox News still hasn’t found its footing on how to sell or promote this deeply unpopular conflict in the Middle East.

President Trump wasn’t helping as he held extended press conferences at the construction site of his beloved ballroom, rambled on about his reflecting pool project and exaggerated or fabricated his many perceived accomplishments in his second term.

It seems Trump would rather obsess about his building projects and legacy than do much of anything to help the American public.

Desperate for something to rev up its viewers Fox News demonized Democrats all over the country. The network had a field day with the botched DNC autopsy on its many failures surrounding the 2024 presidential election.

Fox News downplayed a court settlement between Trump and the IRS that would dole out nearly $1.8 billion of taxpayer money in an Anti-Weaponization Fund to anyone who felt they were legally victimized by the previous administration. This could include violent rioters who beat law enforcement officers, terrorized lawmakers and damaged property at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Jesse Watters dedicated a lot of airtime on recently released and declassified Pentagon files about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) commonly referred to as UFO’s. The network also ramped up and expanded its coverage of fraud cases in Minnesota to include multiple Democratically run states it called ‘The Fraud Files.’

The network also found creative ways to promote former reality star Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. During breaking news segments about a wildfire in California Fox would include Pratt’s social media posts about the disaster while leaving out the mayor’s office response.

Fox News also celebrated wins by Trump endorsed candidates in Republican primaries in multiple states.

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Anyone tuning into Fox News last week might think the channel had converted to a home shopping network that sold only one product - the glorious leader himself Donald J. Trump.

The president was treated like an overpriced trinket. “Look at how he stands next to Xi Jinping. Observe how his tiny makeup covered hands touch the Chinese leader’s! Such majesty!”

It wouldn’t have surprised me if Fox shifted to a sales pitch while discussing the president, “If you call right now, you too will get our exclusive offer and pay for your own Glorious Leader replicate in four easy to pay installments of $19.99!”

There were no definitive trade deals to crow about, no negotiations with Iran, and no relief in sight for sky-high gas prices.

Trump dined with and stood next to the Chinese president while a small group of billionaire business owners followed them around like dutiful ducklings.

China is known for making promises it doesn’t keep, stealing intellectual property, threatening its neighbors, committing human rights abuses, cheating on trade agreements, suppressing freedom of speech, crushing dissent, and violating international embargoes and sanctions.

None of this seemed to bother Trump. If Xi Jinping promised to buy more U.S. soybeans, then that was good enough for the president even if the country has still not matched its prior commitments to U.S. farmers.

It was a lot of pageantry with very little substance, another distraction for Trump’s disastrous war in the Middle East and failed domestic policies.

Other topics on the network included the ongoing war with Iran, an attack on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the network’s aggressive promotion of Spencer Pratt, a former reality television star, for Los Angeles mayor.

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Fox News continues to stumble and bluff its way through an incoherent sales pitch for Trump’s poorly planned war with Iran. Sean Hannity along with some of the last remaining neocons also promoted the worst idea in the world - sending weapons to the Iranian people.

It was 1979 again in the absolute worst way possible.

Normally the network forms a united front about any given topic, narrows in on its target and repeatedly pummels it. Fox News hosts will often use the exact same phrasing, slogans, catch phrases, and battle cries across multiple programs.

Since the war started Fox has been a disorganized mess.

At the start of the week Project Freedom, Trump’s plan to open the Strait of Hormuz, was sold as a brilliant strategic move that would bring a quick end to the war. When it collapsed almost immediately after it was implemented the folks on Fox splintered.

Hosts on Fox & Friends shared their doubts about the war, Jesse Watters made excuses for the president, Sean Hannity sold it as a checkmate move and the folks on The Five stopped talking about the war entirely.

Fox News knows how to whip its audience into a frenzy about urban crime, dangerous migrants, woke blue-haired teenagers, eminent communist revolutions, anti-white DEI schemes and shifty transgender athletes but it can’t seem to figure out how to sell the idea of another protracted war in the Middle East or soften the blow around high gas prices.

Sean Hannity thought it was a good idea to recycle some of the worst foreign policy ideas of decades past. He also got so desperate last week he included extended segments about former president Barack Obama even repeating talking points from 2008.

If he could have found a way to bring up Hillary Clinton’s emails, bleach bit servers, Hunter Biden’s laptop and Bill Clinton’s sock drawer he would have.

The network also shifted its focus to topics it knows well - trashing Democrats and endorsing long-shot Republican candidates in California.

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Fox News started last week dutifully hyping up Trump’s proposed White House ballroom. On Monday on every show, I covered Trump’s favorite vanity project was championed as a life saving measure that would protect the president and top-ranking cabinet officials from the bullets of a would be assassin.

By Tuesday the network had moved on. Fox News executives are known for obsessively tracking audience reaction. I suspect that even the most diehard Fox News fans were just not that excited over an enormous columned building their glorious leader cannot stop talking about.

The network switched its focus to the third attempt on the president’s life along with King Charles’ visit and the White House state dinner.

Blurry surveillance video footage of Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the shooting, attempting to rush past a throng of armed security personnel was far more compelling than discussions about giant event spaces and drone-proof roofs.

By mid-week the network made a pivot to scolding ‘Liberal lunatics’ for promoting conspiracy theories about the latest attempt on the president’s life.

Since I started this project in February 2022, I’ve seen Fox News hosts promote conspiracy theories such as cultural Marxism, the great replacement, the great reset, birtherism, various false stories about Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden along with secret plots to promote insects as a main source of protein.

Meanwhile the conflict with Iran was relegated to a minor story. At least twice last week Jesse Watters declared that the war was over only to start cheerleading for a swift victory the next day.

Fox News hosts were also downright gleeful about the recent Supreme Court ruling that severely weakened The Voting Rights Act.

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