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Last Thursday — the day after Donald Trump announced tariffs that tore up a century of US economic policy — the top story on Fox News’s website was about a teenager who had been stabbed at a Texas high school track meet.
On Monday morning, as stocks tumbled, the Fox News website directed readers to a live video of Trump welcoming the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team to the White House to celebrate their World Series win.
Hosts on Fox News’s daytime talk show Outnumbered on Monday discussed the tariffs, arguing that Americans should be patient and have faith in Trump’s strategy.
“This is a steadying of the market as we adjust to an American-centric economy that we deserve,” said host Emily Compagno, as an on-screen stock ticker showed the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling. “The impact for us will be positive if we just give it a minute.” The hosts then moved on to discuss a Vancouver woman who had been “seriously injured” after someone threw a rock at her Tesla car.
As Trump’s tariffs rattled markets and raised the prospect of a global recession, some conservative pundits have spoken out against the White House in recent days. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro slammed Trump’s tariffs as “probably unconstitutional” and “predicated on a bad idea”. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board warned that Trump “is acting with little understanding about the damage his tariffs will cause”.
However, opinion hosts on Fox News — the go-to news source for conservative Americans — have largely appeared to downplay the fallout.
On one of Fox’s most popular shows, The Five, host Jeanine Pirro defended Trump’s tariffs.
“I don’t really care about my 401k today,” Pirro told viewers on Thursday. “You know why? Not that I can afford it, not that it isn’t important, not that I’m not at a point in my life when I should be worried about my 401k because I am. But this is what I believe. I believe in this man.”
Host Sean Hannity also defended the strategy. “We are not a charity for the rest of the world . . . they’ve been taking advantage of us,” he said. “Now we’re finally playing to win.”
Bret Baier, the network’s chief political anchor, offered a more nuanced summary on his Monday evening newscast. Describing a “rollercoaster today on Wall Street”, Baier told viewers: “Even some congressional Republicans are expressing concerns about the president’s tariffs. Others are calling for calm.”
Fox News said the examples were “cherry picked over five days of coverage”.
“Fox News covers issues with different perspectives from other networks, which is why our ratings are at historically high levels and why more independents and Democrats are watching us than our competitors,” it said.
Host Maria Bartiromo on Monday morning said she expected the tariffs to “hit the Main Street”. Fox News anchor Steve Doocy last Thursday asked Trump about the stock market rout. Fox News on Friday published an opinion piece by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, arguing the tariffs “don’t punish foreign countries; they punish American families”.
Fox News’s audiences have ballooned as viewers flocked to its channel to follow the frenetic start of Trump’s second presidency. More than 3mn people watched the broadcaster during the 8-11pm “primetime” hours in the first three months of 2025, up nearly 50 per cent from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen data.
Fox Corp chief executive Lachlan Murdoch last month told investors that the US election had “validated Fox News’s position”.
“If you look at the Fox News viewer, they’re incredibly loyal. They’re passionate about the service. They really see it as not just as a news service but as a network for them,” he said at a Morgan Stanley conference. “We see ourselves as a common sense network . . . the election and the election results have sort of validated Fox News’s position”.
The Murdoch family owns Fox and News Corp, home to The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
Trump on Monday posted a series of screenshots and links to Fox News and Newsmax segments praising his tariffs.
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As the stock market pared losses on Monday afternoon, Fox News alerted its viewers of the positive swing. Steve Moore, a former Trump adviser, spoke on the network that afternoon: “It’s a very risky strategy, but I think it will work out.”
The channel then aired an interview with an Illinois cattle rancher Steve Lucie who was hopeful about the tariffs.
Lucie, described as a fifth-generation cattle rancher, compared the stock market to his horse. “He runs off and he’s going to roll around in the dirt and get away from me . . . but as soon as you hold out a bucket of oats, he’s running right back.
“We have to deal with a little bit of pain to have some gain,” he said.
