Tag: right wing
As Prices Rise, Fox Hosts Struggle To Hide Trump's Inflation Fail

As Prices Rise, Fox Hosts Struggle To Hide Trump's Inflation Fail

Donald Trump’s supporters in right-wing media, particularly at Fox News, repeatedly hyped his oft-repeated campaign promise to quickly bring down consumer prices, and especially the cost of groceries, if he was reelected.

These promises included immediate price decreases, with Trump saying during the campaign, “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one,” and, “Prices will come down. … They’ll come down fast.”

But after Trump took office, prices not only didn’t come down, they continued rising for many people and businesses. News organizations swiftly contrasted Trump’s lofty promises of immediate relief with the reality that he hasn’t been keeping those promises. The Trump administration’s illegal impoundment of congressionally authorized spending and his announcements of universal tariffs, nation-specific tariffs, and product-specific tariffs are already leading to higher costs and price hikes for Americans and are reportedly leading consumers to expect further price increases.

And as Trump’s inflationary policies begin to take effect, both the Trump administration and Fox figures have begun providing excuses for why Trump failed in his promise to “immediately bring prices down.”

Fox repeatedly promoted Trump’s promise of lower prices if he was reelected

  • During a phone interview, Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones gushed over Trump’s focus on lowering prices. During a March 5, 2024, phone interview with Trump, Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones said: “Mr. President, a lot of people believe that you’re at your best when you’re fighting for the American people. And we just heard in the diners, we heard immigration, but the other top issue is the economy. What are you going to do to give us some relief when it comes to this inflation?” Trump responded by talking about oil production and saying “energy’s going to bring it all down.” [Media Matters, 3/5/24]
  • Fox host Sandra Smith: Trump “had me at let’s address this inflation nightmare.” This followed a clip of Trump’s Republican National Convention speech where he said, “I make this pledge to the great people of America: I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately." [Fox News, The Five, 7/19/24]
  • Fox News host Sean Hannity: Voting for Trump will result in “next to zero inflation, lower gas prices and energy prices.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 8/22/24]
  • Fox host Laura Ingraham: “The debate is over. Trump wins on the issues that matter most: inflation, economy, and border security. Don't let the regime media fool you!” [Twitter/X, 9/24/24]
  • Hannity: Because of Trump’s victory, “we're gonna pay lower prices in the grocery store, pay a lot less for gasoline.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 11/7/24]
  • Fox Business host Taylor Riggs said Scott Bessent’s nomination as treasury secretary would lead to “lower prices, maybe immediately.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 11/26/24]
  • Then-Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Fox & Friends said Trump “is going to get to work to day one ... to bring down the cost of living and energy in the country” and will “deliver on that promise.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/6/25]
  • Fox guest Ari Fleischer on Trump promising to lower prices: “The real answer is he’s going to accomplish it first off because of one phone call, his first phone call to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Just watch, Laura — they’re going to increase oil production.” Fleischer added: “The price of energy is going to come down.” (OPEC+ announced it would not increase oil production more than it already planned to after Trump called on the group to lower oil prices.) [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/27/25; Oilprice.com, 2/12/25]

Fox is now providing excuses for Trump not meeting his pledge to immediately lower prices

  • A guest on Fox Business said that the “data is going to come out more depressed now that the Trump administration is in” and answered affirmatively when anchor Maria Martiromo asked if that’s because the Biden administration was “cooking the books.” The panel cited routine revisions to jobs estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which led to conspiracy theorizing from right-wing media. [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 1/30/25; Media Matters, 8/21/24]
  • Fox guest Stephen Moore preemptively blamed Biden for an expected increase in prices. On America Reports, Moore said: “The problem for Trump is that, in the last few months that Biden was president, we saw inflation rising again, Sandra. I think this next report we get out later this week is going to show a pretty significant bump in prices. And obviously Trump wasn't even in office when that happened, so it will take, I think, about, you know, three to six months to start seeing the effect of Trump's policies on inflation.” [Fox News, America Reports, 2/10/25]
  • Fox anchor Dana Perino on prices continuing to rise: “People realize that Joe Biden caused the inflation and then ignored it.” Perino continued: “So I think that people look at that and say come on, sit down, and give President Trump a little bit of time. It's been three weeks.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/10/25]
  • Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis complained that expecting immediate price decreases (like Trump promised) “isn’t necessarily possible or rational.” [Fox Business, The Big Money Show, 2/12/25]
  • Fox host Laura Ingraham complained that Democrats are calling out Trump for not immediately lowering prices like he promised. Ingraham said: “President Trump hasn't been in basically a month or so and yet the Democrats are making it seem like there should be monumental change on the economy right away, immediately.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/12/25]
  • Fox Business anchor David Asman: “What Donald Trump has inherited is much worse than the numbers that we were looking at before. It makes a lot of people wonder whether those numbers were cooked.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 2/13/25]
  • Fox Business guest Jacob Sonenshine of Barron’s said an additional percentage point of inflation from Trump’s tariffs “doesn’t really matter” because “the market’s going to power right through it.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 2/13/25]
  • The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro: “Don't you think it's rather ridiculous for the Democrats to be complaining, ‘It's just four weeks, and the economy isn't better.’” She added: “It's just four weeks and eggs haven't come down. How ridiculous is that?” Co-host Kayleigh McEnany responded: “Totally ridiculous.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/21/25]

News organizations report that Trump has abandoned his pledge to lower prices and pushed policies that would likely increase them

  • CNN: “Trump pledged to bring down food prices on Day One. Instead, eggs are getting more expensive.” CNN reported that egg prices continued to rise during the first week of the Trump administration as “Day One has turned into Day Seven,” and that Democratic lawmakers have complained that “despite a flurry of executive actions, Trump’s price-related promises have gone unfulfilled.” CNN additionally reported that “Trump’s frequent price-dropping pledges have long been countered by economists who have noted that broad-based price declines not only would be outright dangerous for an economy by creating a deflationary ‘doom loop,’ but, also, that they’d be improbable to achieve.” [CNN.com, 1/28/25]
  • AP reported that the Department of Agriculture predicts egg prices will “soar another 20 percent this year.” [The Associated Press, 2/18/25]
  • Politico: “Trump’s pledge to lower prices is already facing a reality test.” Politico noted that Trump’s various promises to lower prices face “practical limitations,” citing the soaring price of eggs, the problem with his pledge to increase oil production to a degree which oil companies aren’t likely to desire, and his “sweeping tariffs that could be placed on products from every U.S. trading partner, risking another uptick in costs.” [Politico, 1/29/25]
  • Reuters: “Trump tariffs to stoke US food inflation despite pledge to lower costs.” Reuters reported that economists said “U.S. consumers grappling with soaring prices for beef and eggs will face even higher costs for meat, vegetables and fruit if President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports,” even though Trump “pledged to bring down costs for ordinary Americans.” [Reuters, 1/31/25]
  • NPR: “Prices were a key issue in 2024, but Trump makes clear they're not his top priority.” NPR reported that in the beginning of the Trump administration, “one particular thing has been conspicuously absent: a focus on lowering prices. Trump's promises to bring down the cost of living were a big reason he was elected, but since taking office he has now twice said that's not his top priority.” [NPR, 2/1/25]
  • The Guardian: “Inflation picks up speed after Trump promised to ‘rapidly’ bring down prices.” The Guardian noted that “since his election victory last November, however, Trump has appeared to soften his pledge,” citing a December Time interview where he said that “it’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.” The Guardian additionally explained that “many economists have warned that Trump’s tariff strategy risks exacerbating inflation.” [The Guardian, 2/12/15]
  • NY Times: “With High Prices Persisting, Trump Tempers Tone on Slaying Inflation.” The New York Times reported that despite Trump’s pledge to lower prices on “Day 1,” his administration has “become more measured in how they discuss their efforts to tame inflation,” “downplaying the likelihood that consumer costs like groceries will decline anytime soon, reflecting the limited power that presidents have to control prices.” [The New York Times, 2/12/25]

Trump began walking back his pledge to immediately reduce prices even before taking office

  • In a December Time interview, Trump said of his pledge to bring down prices: “I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard.” Trump said this in response to the question, “If the prices of groceries don't come down, will your presidency be a failure?” [Time, 12/12/24]
  • Trump said twice that he prioritizes immigration over inflation. NPR reported that on the day of Trump’s inauguration, he told supporters: “They all said inflation was the No. 1 issue. I said, 'I disagree. I think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that I know.' And I made it my No. 1.” Days later, Trump reiterated that lowering prices was not his main concern, saying during a Republican congressional retreat: “I always felt the border was first. I talked about that much more so than I did inflation. I mean, inflation was terrible. I think it was the worst in the history of our country, but you can only talk about it so long.” [NPR, 2/1/25]
  • Vice President JD Vance also recently backtracked on Trump’s pledge to immediately lower prices, saying in an interview: “Prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time.” [CBS News, Face the Nation, 1/26/25]
  • Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said when pressed on when prices would come down, “I don’t have a timeline.” [The New York Times, 2/12/25]
  • The NY Times reported that in a Fox interview, “Trump demurred when pressed about when families struggling with high prices would start to feel some relief.” The New York Times reported that Trump instead “suggested that his policies would make America a rich country, which would reduce the burden on consumers by, in theory, increasing their earnings.” [The New York Times, 2/12/25]

Many Americans are facing and expecting increased costs due to Trump’s actions

  • A Trump executive order to pause some federal spending led to surcharges on some Alabamans’ utility bills. [AL.com, 2/11/25]
  • Cato Institute vice president Scott Lincicome posted price increase notices from construction and appliance manufacturers in response to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. [Twitter/X, 2/14/25, 2/14/25, 2/14/25]
  • Wall Street Journal: “Tariffs Give U.S. Steelmakers a Green Light to Lift Prices.” The Journal reported that Trump’s steel tariffs could “enable domestic companies to raise their prices, too,” and followed up with an example of it already happening: “At Riverdale Mills, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of wire fencing and welded mesh used in lobster and crab traps, Chief Executive James Knott said his domestic suppliers of steel wire rod notified him two weeks ago that they are raising prices.” [The Wall Street Journal, 2/4/25]
  • Reuters reported that steel prices have increased costs for manufacturers in anticipation of Trump’s tariffs. Reuters explained: “While President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum are only slated to start on March 12, the action is already reverberating through the network of producers and builders that rely on the metals to make their goods. And not in a good way.” Reuters additionally reported: “Steel prices in the U.S. have surged in recent days, adding to gains since Trump became president. Hot rolled coil prices in the Midwest have jumped 12% to $839 per short ton during the two weeks to Thursday and climbed 20% since Trump took office on January 20, according to data provider Fastmarkets. By contrast, the price of that type of steel has risen only 6% in northern Europe and was barely changed in eastern China since January 20.” [Reuters, 2/24/25]
  • Major PC and laptop manufacturer Acer responded to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports with a 10% price increase for its computers. Acer CEO Jason Chen said: “We will have to adjust the end user price to reflect the tariff. We think 10 percent probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It’s very straightforward.” [PC Gamer, 2/21/25]
  • WSJ: “U.S. Consumer Confidence Falls Back on Fears of Tariff-Induced Price Increases.” The Wall Street Journal reported that the “University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment tumbled to 64.7 at the end of February, well below January’s 71.7. It also was weaker than economists’ expectations of 67.8 from a Wall Street Journal poll.” The Journal further reported that “as a symbol of renewed concerns among U.S. consumers, year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.3% this month from 3.3% in January, the highest reading since 2023 and now well above the range seen in the two years prior to the pandemic.” [The Wall Street Journal, 2/21/25]
  • CNN: “The stock market had its worst week of Trump’s presidency – the Dow lost 1,200 points over the course of Thursday and Friday” as “investors grew fearful that the weakening consumer sentiment could lead to a pullback in Americans’ shopping habits.” CNN also quoted FWDBonds chief economist Chris Rupkey telling investors, “The public’s fears have soared in just the last two weeks showing the blizzard of changes coming from the president’s desk have spilled over the line between pro-growth into the realm of pro-inflation. Once inflation expectations start moving higher it is only a matter of time before actual inflation takes off.” [CNN, 2/24/25]

Economists warned that Trump’s policies of tariffs and mass deportation would reignite inflation

  • Trump’s earliest acts included a major focus on mass deportation and announcing 25% tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners and industrial metals. According to the American Immigration Council, “on the first day of his second term of office, President Donald Trump issued ten executive orders and proclamations seeking to change the face of U.S. immigration law and policy” to “scale up a ‘mass deportation’ operation that everyone without legal status in the United States will be highly vulnerable to.” Trump also initially announced 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as universal 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum. [American Immigration Council, 1/22/25; Media Matters, 2/4/25, 2/11/25]
  • Economists across the political spectrum warned that Trump’s mass deportation and tariff policies would worsen inflation. These included conservative economists Casey B. Mulligan, Doug Holtz-Eakin, and Michael Strain. Progressive and nonpartisan economists, such as Dean Baker, Claudia Sahm, and Josh Bivens also said Trump’s trade and immigration policies would worsen inflation. [Media Matters, 6/18/24]
  • Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists released a letter in June warning that Trump’s re-election “will have economic repercussions for years, and possibly decades, to come” and that his policies “will reignite … inflation.” The letter cited “nonpartisan researchers, including at Evercore, Allianz, Oxford Economics, and the Peterson Institute,” who “predict that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will increase inflation.” [Media Matters, 6/27/24]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Dan Bongino

Putting Dan Bongino In Top FBI Post Signals Trump's Real Agenda

The selection of right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino for a senior FBI role hammers home that President Donald Trump is eliminating the guardrails that prevented right-wing conspiracy theories becoming criminal prosecutions during his first term. It also shovels more dirt on the farcical idea that Trump and his allies want depoliticized law enforcement.

A regular pattern played out over Trump’s first term as the president sought to wield federal law enforcement as an extension of his will. Right-wing conspiracy theorists, typically led by Trump adviser and Fox News host Sean Hannity, would offer bogus claims that Trump’s foes had committed crimes. Then Trump, an inveterate Fox viewer, would publicly or privately demand investigations and often get them. But the probes would ultimately fall apart without significant charges after Trump’s own appointees — Republicans who nonetheless evinced some semblance of independence and professionalism — figured out there was nothing to them.

Trump’s second-term selections are intended to eliminate the disruptions caused by appointees with a higher priority than carrying out the president’s whims. They are sycophants who are zealously loyal to the president and some either previously worked as his personal lawyers or have long public records of calling for criminal investigations of his foes.

Trump said on Sunday that Bongino, who embarked on a career as a right-wing media commentator after serving in the New York Police Department and U.S. Secret Service and losing several congressional campaigns, will serve as deputy director of the FBI. Bongino worked as a Fox contributor and host before leaving in 2023 to focus on his eponymous podcast, which streams on Rumble and airs on Westwood One radio stations.

In announcing Bongino’s new role, Trump said the podcaster would help restore “Fairness” to the justice system. But Bongino is one of the last people you’d select for such a role if your intention was really to run a nonpartisan bureau: He is an inflammatory partisan who has declared that “owning the libs” is “my entire life right now” because they are “pure unadulterated evil" and has fawned over Trump as “an apex predator” and “the lion king.”

Bongino gained influence and an audience during Trump’s first term specifically because of his willingness to issue florid denunciations of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. On his NRATV show and in frequent guest appearances on Fox (particularly on Trump’s belovedFox & Friends and on Hannity’s show), Bongino described Mueller’s probe as “an obvious frame job and set-up” that is “designed to cover up for the misdeeds of the Obama administration” and called for the special counsel’s firing.

That left him well-positioned to jump to a Fox job in early 2019 amid NRATV’s collapse.

Bongino’s’s views of law enforcement weaponization seem entirely based on who is doing the weaponizing.

“The FBI is lost, it’s broken, irredeemably corrupt at this point,” Bongino said in 2022 after bureau agents executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home. “It’s way past time to clean this FBI house up. They have burned every last shred of faith and trust freedom-loving Americans had in it.”

“It's clear now we're living in the police state,” Bongino said after a federal grand jury handed down an indictment of Trump over his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. “The republic is now officially dead.”

But at the same time, Bongino said there should be “an FBI raid at the White House" to target then-President Joe Biden, whom he described as “the real criminal” based on fictitious right-wing corruption claims.

An inveterate conspiracy theorist, Bongino has also pontificated about the Democrats planning a coup in the lead-up to the 2020 election; said that election was marred by “unbelievably suspect behavior”; and suggested that pipe bombs planted near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on January 5, 2021, were an “inside job” and the FBI is withholding the perpetrator because the information would “blow up the entire January 6 insurrection narrative.”

After Trump returned to office in January, Bongino called for an investigation into “special tyrant” Jack Smith and urged the president to “set up a courtroom” in the White House and “start making judicial decisions.” Now he’ll be one of seniormost figures in federal law enforcement with a mandate to carry out such deranged ideas.

It’s unlikely Bongino will be hindered by the higher-ups Trump has installed.

Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, said in a 2023 interview that a second Trump term would target “the conspirators, not just in government but in the media” who had “lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” The appendix of Patel’s 2023 book “names more than 50 current or former US officials that he claims are ‘members of the Executive Branch deep state,’ which he describes as a ‘dangerous threat to democracy,’” in what has been frequently referred to as an “enemies list.”

At the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi previously parlayed frequent Fox appearances defending Trump into a post on his first impeachment legal defense team. Her acting deputy, Emil Bove, previously represented Trump in state and federal prosecutions.

Meanwhile, Ed Martin, who will oversee major cases in the District of Columbia as its acting U.S. attorney, “was an organizer in the ‘Stop The Steal’ movement that falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Trump” and then “worked as a defense attorney for some people charged in the January 6 riot.”

Over the first month of the Trump administration, this new team has proved grim for the rule of law, with January 6 perpetrators pardoned en masse, top prosecutors and FBI leaders purged, and Justice Department lawyers resigning after receiving what they viewed as unacceptably partisan orders to dismiss charges or launch an investigation.

On Sunday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association told its members that Patel had committed to selecting as his deputy “an on-board, active Special Agent as has been the case for 117 years” in order to preserve “operational expertise and experience, as well as the trust of our Special Agent population.” But Trump doesn’t care about any of that, and he announced hours later that Patel had picked Bongino, someone who lacks that experience but shares the president’s desire to punish his political enemies. And that means the months ahead will be worse.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Why Is Trump Pressing Romania To Release Accused Trafficker Andrew Tate?

Why Is Trump Pressing Romania To Release Accused Trafficker Andrew Tate?

Despite his repeated claims that he is in favor of “law and order,” Donald Trump’s administration is pressuring the Romanian government to roll back travel restrictions on right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who has been accused of rape and human trafficking.

Tate is currently under house arrest following his 2023 arrest. Tate and his brother, Tristan, along with two other figures, have been accused of luring women to their home, forcing the women into debt, and pressuring them into filming pornographic scenes that were then shared online. They deny the charges.

The men are also facing similar charges in the United Kingdom.

The women who have made the allegations against Tate have spoken out against Trump’s efforts. Matthew Jury, the lawyer representing the four alleged victims, told the BBC they are “absolutely bewildered why the Trump administration has decided to interfere in this way.”

Tate is a self-described misogynist who sells instructional videos instructing men how to pick up women and has advised men to physically assault women who cheat and to force them into sex. He is one of the most prominent figures in the right-wing “manosphere” of content producers popular among conservative audiences.

He is also a Trump supporter. After the 2024 election, Tate praised Trump as a “hero” who “single handedly kept two evil war mongering she witches out of office [sic],” referring to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Following his arrest, Tate has become a right-wing cause célèbre. Donald Trump Jr. has described Romania’s legal action against Tate as “absolute insanity,” while Trump financier Elon Musk has praised Tate for his long-shot campaign to run for British prime minister.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump pandered to the misogynist manosphere with multiple interviews and appearances on the podcasts and other streaming shows that make up that world. Those appearances were seen as key to Trump’s improved performance with young men in the election compared to the results in 2016 and 2020.

Trump and figures in his administration like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have also extolled the virtues of misogynist, right-wing faux masculinity for years—a sentiment embodied by Tate.

Advocating for Tate, even with the distasteful rhetoric the influencer has used and the seriousness of the charges against him, is a way for Trump to show the manosphere and its audience that he is on their side and advocating for them. Many of these men share the world view that decades of fights for sexual equality are suppressing their rights and are yearning for a return to a misogynist system where women’s views and roles are minimized.

Furthermore, Trump himself is an admitted serial assaulter of women. He has bragged about groping women, been accused of sexual assault, and has surrounded himself with other men that have been the subject of similar accusations.

In Trump’s view, Tate is a fellow traveler. Advocating for the misogynist also feeds into the false narratives promoted by Trump, Musk, and other conservative figures that international governments are in on a conspiracy to suppress “traditional” (misogynist) values.

When Trump rails against “woke” mindsets and pushes to purge it from the U.S. government by rolling back civil rights protections, that also applies to global governments. In their distorted view, Romania’s government is being too “woke” by restricting the movement of an accused sex trafficker.

Trump is not tough on crime, as the freed perpetrators of January 6 can attest. But now that also applies to alleged crime in other countries, as long as the cause of fake masculinity can be advanced.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Linda McMahon

Trump Nominee Casts Doubt On 'Legality' Of Black History Lessons

During her February 13 Senate confirmation hearing, Trump nominee for education secretary Linda McMahon cast doubt on the future of Black history courses in American public schools, saying she’s “not quite certain” if Black history instruction would violate an executive order banning “critical race theory in the classroom." During Biden’s presidency, some right-wing media figures called for the end of Black history curriculum, with one Fox News personality calling it a “Trojan horse.”

Black history courses in public schools may be on the chopping block

  • On January 29, Trump signed an executive order blocking federal funding for schools that teach “gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom.” The executive order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” also reinstates the 1776 Commission, which promotes Republicans’ vision of “patriotic education." [Politico, 1/29/25; MSNBC; 1/30/25]
  • While testifying before a Senate committee, McMahon declined to confirm whether public schools could still legally offer Black history courses or school clubs based on race or ethnicity. McMahon refused to give a straight answer when Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) asked if a public school could lose federal funding if it allowed identity clubs, claiming she didn’t want to address “hypothetical situations." Responding to further questioning about whether Black history courses would violate Trump’s executive order, McMahon replied, “I'm not quite certain.” [NPR, 2/13/25]
  • In January 2023, right-wing media celebrated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to block the College Board’s AP African American Studies course due to its supposed lack of “educational value." DeSantis’ action came on the heels of a concentrated outrage campaign over critical race theory. [Media Matters, 1/25/23; 8/3/21]

Right-wing media have long demonized African American history lessons in public schools

  • Daily Wire host Matt Walsh argued that courses on African American history should not not be offered “at all.” Walsh: “Any kind of African American history or studies, that should not be a course that is offered or presented in grade school, in public schools. It shouldn't be there at all.” [Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 1/25/23]
  • Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “The Trojan horse is a Black history AP high school class." A chyron airing throughout the segment read: “AP history course stuffed with CRT.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/24/23]=
  • Watters said Black history after the 1950s shouldn’t be taught because “it’s all activism." Watters: “You get to about 1960 in here and it's all activism. It's all ideology. It's no history. A good chunk is really good stuff, and then it goes into white supremacy, patriarchy, abolish the prisons, overthrow capitalism, queer theory, intersectionality." [Fox News, The Five, 1/24/23]
  • Fox host Sean Hannity defended DeSantis's ban on AP African American Studies: “I think what they're trying to do is indoctrinate kids.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/25/23]
  • Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo commended DeSantis’ ban of AP African American Studies, saying that the course was “being used as a Trojan horse to push, again, ideology." He also criticized the courses as being a “disservice to our kids and to African Americans.” [Fox News, Faulkner Focus, 1/24/23]
  • Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth claimed that lessons discussing Black and LGBTQ history were proof that public schools are “radicalizing your children.” Hegseth specifically complained about lessons titled, “Black Women,” “Diversity," “Black Families," and “Black Villages." [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/2/24]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

Trending

World