Moments before Fox News aired the White House’s Sunday press conference—which took place shortly after the publication of the New York Times’ massive report on Donald Trump’s tax records—an out-of-frame employee apparently let out an exclamation that embodied the sentiment of a network tasked with playing cleanup after yet another presidential bombshell. Following the announcement of “Yes, we have the president here,” came a hot-mic “Ah, shit.”
While Fox News has not entirely avoided covering the Times scoop on how the president managed to pay just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 after paying zero dollars in 10 out of the 15 years prior due to a string of disastrous business endeavors, the network has turned to Trump’s closest allies, including those who happen to share his name, to shrug off this latest financial scandal. On Monday morning, first son Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Fox & Friends and grinned and shook his head when Brian Kilmeade inquired about the piece. “Look, it’s ridiculous,” Junior said, claiming that “my father” has paid “tens of millions” in taxes. “Of course the New York Times does this,” he said. “They put out a selective picture of all of these things the day before the debate to try to give someone like Joe Biden an attack line to come up with one or two catchy sound bites—and that’s the game.” He went on to compare the Times report to “the debunked claim about the military,” referencing the Atlantic’s story on Trump calling deceased U.S. service members “suckers” and “losers,” a report that, incidentally, was partially confirmed by a reporter on the same network hosting Don Jr. The president’s son closed with a screed against “the Biden crime family” and accusations that Biden’s son is supposedly linked to “human trafficking and prostitution rings in Eastern Europe.”
Later in the morning, Fox & Friends scored an interview with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, her first TV appearance since the Times story was published. Rather than press the top White House communications aide, Ainsley Earhardt likewise framed the Times piece as a strategic drop to help Biden in Tuesday’s debate: “What do you make of the timing of this, the tax thing coming out, you know, a day before the debate, and how is he preparing for the debate?” McEnany replied by likening the report to a “hit piece” and saying it is a repeat of “the same playbook they tried in 2016.”
In Fox’s morning news segment delivered by Griff Jenkins, a reporter on the network’s hard-news side as opposed to its opinion side—a difference without a distinction, aside from the hard-news personalities’ Professional Reporter voices—the emphasis was placed on Trump’s denial, rather than the details outlined in the investigation. After mentioning the Biden campaign’s new ad that cites the Times report to note that teachers, firefighters, and nurses pay thousands more in taxes than the president’s $750, Jenkins harped on Trump “vehemently disputing the report, lashing out at the Times saying his returns will show otherwise but he cannot release them because he is under an IRS audit.” (As has been previously reported, an audit would not prevent Trump from releasing his tax returns.)
It is not uncommon for the Trump–allied media to sidestep damning new reports about the president, but with the Times tax story logging four million engagements by Monday morning and leading network and cable shows throughout the day, even the most sycophantic pro–Trump figures have found it more difficult to brush aside. So far, Fox isn’t going that route, but is instead carefully framing various segments and interviews about the investigation, possibly because it can only fill so much airtime with pieces on an award-winning rat in Cambodia, a pro-troops, first responders, and police themed BBQ chain opening their 96th location, and B-roll footage of South Dakota’s governor riding a horse—all of which aired in the aftermath of the Times report. Still, that reality certainly won’t stop some from shrugging it all off.