By Tim Marcin
Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Republicans don't particularly believe Fox News has any real effect on the decision-making of President Donald Trump, a new poll released on Wednesday showed.
A survey from The Economist/YouGov asked: "How much influence do you think FOX News has on Donald Trump's decision making?" Respondents could choose a lot, a little or no influence at all.
Among Republicans, nearly seven in 10—68 percent—said Fox News had no influence at all, according to *The Economist/*YouGov poll. Twenty-four percent of GOP respondents said a little while just 8 percent said a lot.
Read More on U.S.
There was, perhaps predictably, a divide along party lines. A plurality of Democrats—44 percent—said Fox News had a lot of influence over Trump, while 21 percent said a little. Thirty-five percent of Democratic respondents said Fox had no influence over the president at all.
Overall, a majority of Americans—51 percent—thought Fox News had no influence over Trump's decision-making. Twenty-six percent of Americans, meanwhile, responded that Fox had a lot of influence over the president while 23 percent said a little.
The survey from The Economist/YouGov polled 1,500 U.S. adults from July 22 through July 24. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
...
It's difficult to know, for sure, exactly how much Fox News affects the decisions Trump makes, but he very clearly cares about what they broadcast. As Politico pointed out in-depth early this year, the president often seems to be live-tweeting or parroting the channel's coverage—the morning show Fox & Friends especially. "How Fox & Friends Rewrites Trump's Reality," read a January headline from The New Yorker.
Trump has often lobbed praise or outright quoted Fox & Friends on Twitter. He tweeted in February, for instance: "Thank you to @foxandfriends for exposing the truth. Perhaps that's why your ratings are soooo much better than your untruthful competition!"
Generally speaking, Trump has praised Fox News and avoided lobbing attacks at the channel, unlike he has with nearly every other news source. He has appeared on the network for interviews and reportedly has regular bedtime chats with Fox talking head Sean Hannity.
"Sometimes on Fox, a lot of stories are embellished, and they don't necessarily cover the big news stories of the day. When they cover the smaller stories, if that gets the president riled up, then that becomes an issue," an unnamed White House official told New York magazine in a story published in May. "Whenever he tweets, all of us do a mad dash or mad scramble to find out as much information about that random topic as possible. We're used to it in a lot of ways, so it's part of our morning routine."
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines