Former President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Fox News on Tuesday, labeling the conservative news channel a RINO (Republican in name only) network for covering Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in New York on Monday instead of his appearance before supporters in Florida that night.
DeSantis, considered a key challenger to Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, although he has yet to declare his intention to run, visited Staten Island, New York, on Monday to promote his pro-law enforcement views and crime-fighting initiatives.
Fox News has taken a shine to a potential DeSantis presidential candidacy, much like it had to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. But its coverage of Trump and his appearances have cooled since the 2020 presidential election, especially after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In a post Tuesday on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote: "So interesting to watch FoxNews cover the small and unenthusiastic 139 person crowd in Staten Island for DeSantis, but stay as far away as possible from coverage of the thousands of people, many unable to get in, at the Club 47 event in West Palm Beach, Florida.
"I call FoxNews the RINO Network, and their DOWN BIG Ratings accurately reflect the name. If FAKE NEWS CNN was smart, which they're not, they'd go Conservative & 'All Trump, All the Time,' like in 2016, and become a Ratings Juggernaut."
But Fox News isn't the only media outlet to be criticized by Trump for its coverage of DeSantis. On Sunday, Trump criticized the New York Post, which, like Fox News, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, for a profile of DeSantis by reporter Salena Zito published Saturday. He also took a dig at another Murdoch property, The Wall Street Journal.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: "In writer Salena Zito's Fake News 'puff piece' about DeSantis, which supposedly appeared in the dying New York Post, which is way down in readership just like FoxNews is way down in Ratings, why doesn't she mention that he wants to cut Social Security & Medicare, loves losers like Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, and [is] getting CLOBBERED in the polls by me.
"DeSantis is a RINO who is trying to hide his past. I don't read the New York Post anymore. It has become Fake News, just like Fox & WSJ!"