The prior love affair between former President Donald Trump and Fox News has been over for quite some time now, and it has become increasingly clear that they will almost certainly never, ever be getting back together.
On Tuesday morning, Trump went on a tirade against the generally right-leaning news network on his Truth Social account and had specific criticism for the "Fox & Friends" morning crew as well as Fox Business host Stuart Varney, according to The Hill.
The underlying theme of Trump's rants was how Fox News and its hosts are allegedly dishonest and biased against him in how they cover the various early primary and general election polls that he and his campaign and supporters continue to relentlessly focus virtually all of their attention on.
"I watched Fox & Friends this morning, and it is totally unrecognizable," Trump wrote in one post.
"All they do is 'gush' over job seeking candidates that are 50 Points, plus, down to your favorite President, or speak endlessly about people that will never run and, without cheating, could never win … And what ever happened to Steve? No wonder their ratings are way down. MAGA!" he continued in reference to co-host Steve Doocy.
A short time later, Trump, seemingly nostalgic for the previously positive coverage and adulation he used to receive from the network, added in a separate post, "FoxNews was our VOICE, but sadly, that VOICE has developed a serious case of Laryngitis!!!"
Prior to all of that, Trump took aim at Fox Business host Varney, who is set to moderate the second GOP primary debate that the former president plans to skip similar to how he didn't participate in the first GOP debate last month, per The Hill.
"Did Stuart Varney of Fox Business, who is hosting the upcoming 'Job Application,' ever apologize for probably purposely mixing up my Poll numbers with Ron DeSanctimonious, making it look like he was winning, when in fact he is being CRUSHED," Trump posted.
"Varney took a lot of heat, but I still haven’t heard the word, 'SORRY!' he added. "MAGA knew anyway, they didn’t have to look at a Fake Fox Post!!!"
The Hill noted that it was not clear what, specifically, Trump was referencing with his complaint about Varney "purposely mixing up" poll numbers, but this certainly wasn't the first time that Fox News poll coverage has been the subject of his ire on social media.
In fact, it was just a few months ago that Trump sharply critiqued his own former White House press secretary Kayleigh MacEnany, who now works for Fox News, over her having cited polling from Florida which ostensibly showed that Trump's only real rival among the field, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, was "closing the gap" between himself and the frontrunner.
For those who, like Trump and his campaign, live and die by the polls -- despite there still being several months before any votes are actually cast, the former president does still retain a solid and seemingly insurmountable lead over the rest of the field of Republican candidates.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of GOP primary polls, Trump garners 56.6% support and maintains a 42.2-point lead over DeSantis, who draws around 14.4% support, while the remainder of the candidates are polling at around 6% or less.
As for RCP's average of 2024 general election polls, Trump is also currently leading President Joe Biden by 1.1 points in a prospective rematch of 2020, with him drawing 45.4% support compared to 44.3% for Biden.
