Fox News has reportedly imposed a 'soft ban' on Donald Trump, preventing the former president from appearing on the network during weekdays, according to sources close to Trump cited by the news startup Semafor. Trump has not made a weekday appearance on Fox News since September, when he appeared on Sean Hannity's show.
Meanwhile, other Republican hopefuls for the 2024 presidential election, including Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, have been frequent guests on the network. Haley has appeared seven times since launching her bid last month, while Ramaswamy has appeared four times since entering the race last week. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to challenge Trump, is also regularly seen on Fox.
The reported ban comes at a tense time for Fox News, which is facing a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit alleges that Fox allowed false conspiracy theories about Dominion rigging the 2020 election against Trump to proliferate. In a deposition, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox Corp, admitted he knew several hosts were endorsing election lies but chose not to stop them.
Trump has increasingly criticised Fox News and Murdoch, recently posting on Truth Social that Murdoch was peddling 'fake news' after the deposition revealed Murdoch did not believe the stolen election claims. Trump called for Murdoch to 'get out of the news business'. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
