Fox News to Trump: Show up for the debate

Fox News is trying to talk former President Trump into showing up for the first GOP presidential debate later this month.

The effort was reflected throughout the network’s programming Thursday, where several figures made the argument on air for why Trump, the front-runner, shouldn’t skip the debate on Fox.

“Thinking of the big debate coming up, and I’m not saying this to sell the debate, it’s a great debate and would be great if the president and all the candidates could make it, but if you’re Donald Trump and this is all everyone is talking about and you own all the oxygen in the room, wouldn’t you want to be in that room?” Fox News host Neil Cavuto said during his 4 p.m. show Thursday, while Trump’s arraignment on charges related to his efforts to stay in power dominated the coverage.

Days earlier, pundit Piers Morgan, who hosts a show on Fox’s streaming service, made a direct on-air appeal to Trump, telling him to “show us what you’re made of” and participate in the first primary debate. 

“So, if you’re watching, Donald, come on,” Morgan said. 

Trump, far and away the leader in the polls, has been flirting with skipping the debate, arguing it would just elevate his competition. He’s also described a “hostile” relationship with Fox News, suggesting that could be a factor in his decision to attend or not to attend.

The debate will be a big news event with or without Trump, but it’s difficult to believe the attention — and the television ratings — won’t be higher if Trump is there.

The New York Times reported that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and network President Jay Wallace had dinner with the former president at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., golf club Tuesday, where they asked him to consider attending the debate.

During the network’s coverage Thursday, Fox’s chief political anchor Bret Baier, who is co-moderating this month’s debate, said the network would “be prepared either way” if Trump decides to participate or takes a pass. 

“Remember back in the 2016 cycle, he didn’t come to the Iowa debate, the second one we held,” Baier said. “Believe it or not, up until the last minute, we had two stacks of questions. One with Donald Trump and one without. So I think we may be in that same boat.” 

If Trump makes good on his threat to ignore the first GOP debate, it will serve as a slight to Fox. Some see that as being Trump’s motivation.

“It’s highly unlikely that Trump will go out of his way to give Fox its best ratings of the year,” one national Republican strategist told The Hill this week. “I suspect he’s going to be paying attention to the coverage on Fox over the next several weeks to see how they’re treating him.” 

Trump, who has served as a major ratings driver for cable news outlets for years, has repeatedly criticized Fox and its corporate ownership over what he perceives as overly positive coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his top GOP primary rival.

Trump’s decision to skip the final GOP primary debate before the Iowa caucuses in 2016 came amid a large lead he had in that Republican primary field, similar to the one he holds over DeSantis and others in the running this year. 

But there are new power dynamics between Trump and Fox at play this year. 

In posts on his Truth Social website and during various media interviews, Trump has repeatedly blasted Rupert Murdoch, the powerful media mogul who owns the conservative cable channel, as a “globalist” while labeling Fox News a “RINO” network. 

“I don’t know that I should be doing it, to be up against a hostile network with hostile people that are polling at zero. I mean, they don’t have any votes,” Trump told Breitbart this week about the prospect of appearing in a debate against the rest of the GOP field. “I think it could be stupid — it could be a stupid thing to do. But I have not made up a decision.”

Despite his recent attacks, several of Fox’s top hosts remain staunchly supportive of Trump and spent much of the week defending him following his federal indictment. 

A recent New York Times/Siena poll found 93 percent of voters who listed Fox as their primary news source do not believe Trump has committed serious crimes. 

Tensions between Trump and Fox can be traced back most directly to the fallout from the 2020 election. 

On election night 2020, Trump exploded on the network over its relatively early call of Arizona for President Biden, a call the network stood by despite unfounded claims of voter fraud being promoted by Trump’s campaign. 

Two years later, Fox agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle defamation claims brought by the company for false statements about its software made on Fox’s air by Trump and his allies. 

As part of the Dominion lawsuit, internal communications from top Fox hosts and executives were made public showing several of them disparaging the former president and throwing cold water on his assertions about electoral fraud. 

Presidential debates are typically big ratings nights for the major networks, and Trump has proven to be a unique audience driver for cable news channels for years. 

Under former network CEO Jeff Zucker, CNN experienced a boom in viewership during Trump’s first run for the White House and four years in office, numbers that have fallen off sharply since. 

A recent town hall featuring Trump won CNN a more than 300 percent one-night ratings boost, illustrating the former president’s continued ability to drive the news cycle and draw large audiences.  

Left-leaning cable outlet MSNBC this week similarly experienced a sharp uptick in viewership in prime time Tuesday, the day Trump’s latest indictment was handed down. 

Fox, which routinely ranks as the top-watched cable news channel, has seen its ratings fall the least of the major networks in the post-Trump presidency years. 

Hosting a debate is an elaborate and expensive undertaking for the network that is still reeling from the Dominion settlement and is looking to shape the narrative around the coming presidential race. 

“Fox News Media looks forward to hosting the first debate of the Republican presidential primary season offering viewers an unmatched opportunity to learn more about the candidates’ positions on a variety of issues which is essential to the electoral process,” the network said in a statement to The Hill on Friday.   

The ball is ultimately in Trump’s court, other observers say, and speculation about what the former president will decide to do is likely premature. 

“The views on Trump from the Fox News enterprise and the Murdochs at this point are pretty well known. So it’s really more a matter of pragmatism,” one conservative media executive told The Hill. “For Trump, who knows how he’ll make the decision? It’ll probably be the last person he talked to or the last thing he saw on Fox News.”

Updated: 8:51 a.m.