We’ve always known that ex-President Donald Trump has long enjoyed a “special” relationship with many of the most notable personalities that Fox News Network has to offer. (I mean, the bromance between him and Sean Hannity alone is enough to raise some eyebrows.)
But according to a new report from the Washington Post, the extent of the working and personal relationship the now-former president had with some of the worst Fox News had to offer during his time in the White House went far deeper than we could have even imagined.
Apparently, Donald Trump had a makeshift “Cable Cabinet” of informal advisers hailing from the ultra Right-wing network, who enjoyed a direct phone number to personally reach the then President at the White House and even often dialed into official Oval Office meetings.
Just last year, Melania Trump’s former BFF and close insider to the Trump family and administration, Stephanie Grisham, penned a new book in which she revealed that, during his time in the presidency, Donald habitually relied on the advice of Fox hosts such as Judge Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“There were times the president would come down the next morning and say, ‘Well, Sean [Hannity] thinks we should do this,’ or, ‘Judge Jeanine [Jeanine Pirro] thinks we should do this,'” Grisham wrote in her tell-all.
“A lot of it was PR — what he should be saying and how he should be saying it; he should be going harder against wearing masks or whatever,” Melania’s former close friend added, “And they all have different opinions, too.”
Various other insiders have said that Trump was often heavily influenced by what the network reported — with a particularly strong influence from Hannity, Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and Lindsey Graham.
A former official who wished to remain anonymous reportedly revealed that Trump would often dial Hannity and Dobbs directly into official Oval Office meetings during his White House term.
One informal Trump adviser, Michael Pillsbury, said the now-ex-president’s theories and false claims about the 2020 presidential election truly began to gain steam after he watched the theories unfold on Dobbs’ Fox News show. “It taught me the power of the young producers at Fox, and Fox Business especially,” Pillsbury stated.
Trump’s former Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly, is said to have further solidified the notion of Fox News’ importance in the Trump White House, claiming that an understanding of Dobbs’ show was critical to developing an understanding of then-President Trump and his ideas. The report goes on to note that Kelly would go so far as to call on others to continually monitor Fox News if he was unable to do so himself.
But according to former White House communications director Alyssa Farah, it was Sean Hannity himself who enjoyed the most sway, power, and influence over the then-president during the final year of Trump’s White House term.
Farah revealed that it became a foot race among staff in the West Wing to try to predict the advice that the president would soon be getting from his unofficial Fox News advisers. Ultimately, their goal was to “try to get ahead of what advice you thought he was going to be given by these people” because this makeshift cabinet “could completely change his mind on something.”
All of this new information regarding Trump’s troubling relationship with the Fox News stooges during his presidency comes on the heels of the January 6th House Select Committee revealing the communications between former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and various Fox News hosts during the infamous Capitol riot.
Among those to text Meadows asking that the President call off his violent supporters and their unhinged attack was Sean Hannity himself. Upon learning of these messages from Hannity to Meadows, Trump has since seemingly deflected from his Fox News pal, publicly stating his disagreement with Hannity’s messages.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via screen capture
