UPDATE (October 18, 2024, 12:37 p.m. ET): This post has been updated to reflect Fox News contradicting Trump’s claims about receiving help with a campaign speech.
Whenever Donald Trump says, “I shouldn’t say this, but…” it’s best to stop and pay close attention. It’s a phrase he uses often — about everything from health care to political violence to anti-worker tactics — and in nearly every instance, the Republican ends up causing trouble for himself.
In his appearance Friday morning on Fox News, he nevertheless used the line again.
Doocy: Your material at the Al Smith dinner "was real funny, who helped you with it?" Trump: "I had a lot of people helping, a lot of people, a couple people from Fox – actually, I shouldn't say that, but they wrote some jokes. For the most part, I didn't like any of them." pic.twitter.com/hQSFzPNDkd
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 18, 2024
“Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy, sitting alongside the former president, praised Trump’s remarks Thursday at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner — better known as the Al Smith Dinner — and asked who helped write some of the funnier lines.
“Well, I’ve had a lot of people helping, a lot of people, a couple people from Fox, actually — I shouldn’t say that, but they wrote some jokes,” the GOP candidate said.
To be sure, the network soon after contradicted the former president, saying in a statement that “no employee or freelancer” from Fox News wrote jokes for Trump.
So, who’s telling the truth? The Republican or the network? It’s difficult to say with confidence, though if Trump did receive a hand from some “people at Fox,” it’s a meaningful media controversy.
Right off the bat, it’s worth emphasizing that Trump’s appearance at the dinner wasn’t exactly a roaring success. The New York Times published a report that noted, “Mr. Trump rushed through prepared remarks, stumbling at times as he read through pointed political jokes, bitter grievances and crude and at times profane personal attacks.”
Not to put too fine a point on this, but when prominent political leaders appear at a dinner to benefit Catholic charities, there’s a general expectation that they’ll avoid “bitter grievances and crude and at times profane personal attacks.”
But putting aside the cringeworthy attempts at humor — which elicited some booing — the former president probably realized that he “shouldn’t say” that Fox News voices worked with him because his inadvertent candor helped pull back a curtain that the party and the network prefer to keep closed: Trump made it sound as if some people inside the ostensible news organization are his partners, helping him at the height of the presidential campaign, instead of covering him as detached media professionals. Given Fox’s obvious and yearslong role in Republican politics, Trump’s admission probably won’t surprise anyone, but the relevant players generally try to maintain the pretense and keep up appearances. The former president slipped by accidentally telling the truth. To be sure, in recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly complained — online and at rallies — that Fox News is a source of personal disappointment. He’s admonished the network for airing commercials he disapproves of and booking guests that don’t toe the party line. Indeed, in the same interview in which he blurted out the fact that some at Fox helped him with his Al Smith Dinner jokes, the former president suggested to the “Fox & Friends” co-hosts that the network should only air ads that align with his political wishes. But the complaints are rooted in an unstated assumption: Trump expects Fox News to be a partisan ally in all instances, taking steps such as helping him with his speeches, rather than presenting itself as an independent news outlet.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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