Al Jazeera :
US President Donald Trump has a long history of making enemies out of people on whom he had previously heaped praise. From his longtime lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, to former Cabinet officials, Trump regularly undercuts those he feels have wronged him.
Now, as he continues his efforts to deny Joe Biden’s presidential victory, a new list of Trump friends-to-enemies has emerged: a group of extremely loyal backers, now on the outs because Trump feels betrayed by them.
Minutes after Biden’s Electoral College victory was affirmed, Trump announced Barr had submitted his resignation, effective a month before his term was to end. Though Trump has insisted Barr is leaving on good terms, reportedly Trump soured on Barr after his early December remarks to The Associated Press that he has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election”. Trump is also reportedly upset at Barr for not fast-tracking a conclusion from a Justice Department investigation into the FBI’s handling of its probe of the Trump campaign. Soon after Barr’s comments to the AP, Trump was asked if he had “confidence” in Barr, and Trump refused to answer.
And just before Barr submitted his resignation letter, Trump called him out on Twitter for not doing enough regarding investigations into the foreign business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter.
To say Trump had a cozy relationship with right-leaning Fox News is understating things a bit. Yet despite years of giving exclusive interviews and receiving nearly unwavering support from many of the network’s hosts, Trump has now taken to discrediting Fox programming in lieu of more conservative, non-network news. What set Trump off? First, he was reportedly livid that Fox was the first network to make a projection on election night that Joe Biden would win Arizona, something Trump believes set an early narrative that he would ultimately lose the election to Biden. His fury intensified after Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace corrected a correspondent to refer to Biden as president-elect to regular Fox News guest Geraldo Rivera admitting that Trump is “not speaking to me right now because of my position on the election being over”. Trump, in particular, seems to be attacking “daytime” Fox News, where the segments are more news-heavy in contrast to the late-night, opinion-based programming in Hannity and Carlson’s segments. The president now is recommending his supporters get their news from programs like Newsmax and OANN, two networks that helped Trump and his supporters promote the unfounded allegations that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” by the Democrats from Trump.
US President Donald Trump has a long history of making enemies out of people on whom he had previously heaped praise. From his longtime lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, to former Cabinet officials, Trump regularly undercuts those he feels have wronged him.
Now, as he continues his efforts to deny Joe Biden’s presidential victory, a new list of Trump friends-to-enemies has emerged: a group of extremely loyal backers, now on the outs because Trump feels betrayed by them.
Minutes after Biden’s Electoral College victory was affirmed, Trump announced Barr had submitted his resignation, effective a month before his term was to end. Though Trump has insisted Barr is leaving on good terms, reportedly Trump soured on Barr after his early December remarks to The Associated Press that he has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election”. Trump is also reportedly upset at Barr for not fast-tracking a conclusion from a Justice Department investigation into the FBI’s handling of its probe of the Trump campaign. Soon after Barr’s comments to the AP, Trump was asked if he had “confidence” in Barr, and Trump refused to answer.
And just before Barr submitted his resignation letter, Trump called him out on Twitter for not doing enough regarding investigations into the foreign business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter.
To say Trump had a cozy relationship with right-leaning Fox News is understating things a bit. Yet despite years of giving exclusive interviews and receiving nearly unwavering support from many of the network’s hosts, Trump has now taken to discrediting Fox programming in lieu of more conservative, non-network news. What set Trump off? First, he was reportedly livid that Fox was the first network to make a projection on election night that Joe Biden would win Arizona, something Trump believes set an early narrative that he would ultimately lose the election to Biden. His fury intensified after Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace corrected a correspondent to refer to Biden as president-elect to regular Fox News guest Geraldo Rivera admitting that Trump is “not speaking to me right now because of my position on the election being over”. Trump, in particular, seems to be attacking “daytime” Fox News, where the segments are more news-heavy in contrast to the late-night, opinion-based programming in Hannity and Carlson’s segments. The president now is recommending his supporters get their news from programs like Newsmax and OANN, two networks that helped Trump and his supporters promote the unfounded allegations that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” by the Democrats from Trump.
