Donald Trump’s political worldview has long mirrored Fox News’ prime-time programming. As new reports show, the former president’s latest saber-rattling over Nigeria echoes the network’s sensationalized style of fear politics. What does it mean when a media company effectively becomes a commander-in-chief’s brain trust—and what lessons does Dearborn draw from this troubling media-political feedback loop?
By Dearborn Blog Editorial Team
When Donald Trump threatened to use military force against Nigeria in early November 2025, many foreign policy analysts were stunned. CNN’s report revealed that Trump made the declaration after watching Fox News segments portraying Nigerian political unrest as a “terror threat” to American interests【1】.
According to aides, Trump had spent much of that morning watching Fox & Friends and later phoning a senior host for “insight.” It was not the Pentagon, nor the State Department, that informed his view—it was a cable network’s dramatized narrative.
This latest episode confirms what media scholars and former administration officials have long said: Donald Trump is not merely a Fox News viewer; he is its product.
“Fox isn’t covering Trump—it’s producing him.”
The Fox Feedback Loop
During his first presidency, White House aides coined the term “the Fox Feedback Loop.” Trump would often begin his day by watching Fox & Friends, tweet in response to what he saw, and see those same tweets discussed live on air minutes later. Former communications officials called this cycle “governing through television.”
As one 2018 Axios report described, Trump’s schedule included hours of “Executive Time”—which, aides clarified, meant watching cable news, overwhelmingly Fox【2】. The New York Times confirmed he often watched “four to eight hours of television daily,” primarily Fox【3】.
When Sean Hannity became a near-nightly phone companion, White House staffers privately referred to him as “the shadow chief of staff.” Brian Stelter’s book Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth documents how Trump frequently took policy cues directly from Fox’s prime-time opinion hosts【4】.
Fact Focus:
According to Pew Research Center, Fox News viewers in 2020 were 45% more likely than other conservatives to believe misinformation about Muslims and immigrants【5】.
A Network with a Mission
Fox News is not a neutral observer. Founded in 1996 with a mission of countering what Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes called “liberal media bias,” the network’s programming has increasingly blurred the line between commentary and reporting.
Court filings from the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit in 2023 showed Fox executives acknowledging their prime-time shows were “not about facts—they’re about feelings”【6】. The network’s legal defense has repeatedly asserted that its hosts are “opinion commentators,” not journalists—a distinction that shields them from defamation but raises profound ethical concerns.
This blurring of fact and fiction is particularly alarming when a U.S. president takes those “opinions” as gospel. Fox News amplifies Islamophobic tropes, promotes Christian nationalist rhetoric, and frames global conflicts through a civilizational lens.
Scholars at Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative have tracked years of Fox coverage portraying Muslims as violent or foreign. Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham repeatedly aired segments warning of “Islamic threats” and “Christian values under siege.” Advertisers fled several programs after watchdog groups accused the network of mainstreaming hate speech【7】.
In this context, Trump’s media dependency becomes more than personal weakness—it’s a geopolitical hazard.
“When a president consumes propaganda as briefing material, policy becomes performance.”
The Nigeria Episode: Policy via Prime Time
CNN’s November 3, 2025 article reported that Trump threatened to “take decisive military action” if “Islamic militias” in Nigeria “endangered Christian communities”【1】.
The problem? No U.S. intelligence agency had identified such militias as targeting Christians in that way. Analysts quickly traced the claim to a Fox News segment aired hours before Trump’s comments, where a commentator alleged—without evidence—that Nigerian extremists were “plotting regional attacks.”
This wasn’t the first time Trump’s foreign policy mirrored Fox rhetoric. In 2019, he announced the withdrawal from northern Syria minutes after Fox personalities urged him to “bring our troops home.” In 2020, he labeled COVID-19 “the China virus” after segments on The Ingraham Angle and Tucker Carlson Tonight used identical phrasing.
Trump’s worldview, shaped by Fox, aligns with the network’s editorial priorities: white Christian grievance, nationalism, and nostalgia for an America framed as under siege. For Muslim Americans, especially in places like Dearborn—the nation’s largest Arab-American community—such narratives are not abstract. They fuel bias, surveillance, and exclusion.
Dearborn’s Lens: Media Responsibility and Civic Integrity
In Dearborn, where journalism intersects daily with questions of identity, faith, and representation, the Trump-Fox symbiosis reads as a cautionary tale.
Local journalists here have long understood that how stories are framed determines whose humanity is recognized. When Fox or its imitators sensationalize stories about Muslims abroad, those same distortions filter into domestic politics.
Dearborn residents have faced waves of Islamophobic rhetoric—some directly tied to national media coverage that misrepresented our community. Fox’s influence on Trump magnifies this harm: policies born of televised myths translate into travel bans, targeted surveillance, and demonization of dissent.
That’s why Dearborn Blog, rooted in the Green Party’s values of ecological wisdom, social justice, and nonviolence, insists that truth in media is not optional—it’s democratic infrastructure.
“Honesty in media is environmentalism of the mind. It keeps democracy breathable.”
The Green Perspective: Power, Propaganda, and Peace
From a Green political lens, the Trump-Fox dynamic underscores a systemic problem: concentrated media power serving political elites. Corporate-controlled outlets, left or right, prioritize ratings over reality. Fox just perfected the model.
A Green approach to media reform would include:
- Public-interest journalism funding, ensuring communities like Dearborn can tell their own stories.
- Regulating political disinformation, especially when it incites hate or violence.
- Decentralizing media ownership, returning the public airwaves to the public.
The Green Party’s emphasis on grassroots democracy contrasts starkly with the top-down propaganda model Fox embodies. When truth becomes entertainment, and entertainment becomes policy, democracy itself becomes a reality show.
Toward Media Accountability
Even after losing advertisers and facing lawsuits, Fox remains the most-watched cable news network in America. Its reach ensures that millions experience politics as performance, not governance.
But accountability is possible. Civil society groups, fact-checkers, and media-literacy educators are fighting back. Universities are integrating “news hygiene” into civic education. Independent outlets—from Michigan Advance to Democracy Now!—continue to model factual, people-centered journalism.
Dearborn Blog adds its voice to that chorus: the antidote to propaganda is participation. When citizens read critically, engage locally, and support independent media, they reclaim the public sphere from spectacle.
Fact Focus:
Researchers at MIT found that exposure to partisan cable news increases political polarization by up to 20% within three months【8】.
The Dearborn Conclusion
At its core, the story of Trump and Fox News is about dependence: one man’s dependence on flattery, one network’s dependence on outrage, and a nation’s growing dependence on division.
When a president’s worldview is constructed by ratings-driven narratives, policy becomes reactive, not reflective. And when those narratives vilify entire faiths or nations, the consequences ripple globally—from Abuja to Dearborn.
Dearborn’s story is different. Here, communities refuse to be defined by fear. Here, Muslims, Christians, and secular neighbors work together to build local resilience against media-driven hate. Our values—truth, peace, and pluralism—stand as the antidote to sensationalism.
So while Fox may run Trump, it does not run us. We choose facts over fear, community over caricature, and compassion over control.
Source List and Citations
- CNN, “Trump threatens Nigeria military action amid disputed reports of militant violence”, November 3, 2025.
- Axios, “Trump’s Executive Time: Inside his unstructured days”, January 2018.
- The New York Times, “Trump’s Television Habit: Four Hours a Day, Sometimes More”, December 9, 2017.
- Brian Stelter, Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, Simon & Schuster, 2020.
- Pew Research Center, “Political Polarization and Media Habits”, 2020.
- Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News, Delaware Superior Court Filings, 2023.
- The Bridge Initiative (Georgetown University), “Islamophobia in Media: Fox News as Case Study”, 2021.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Partisan Media and Polarization”, Journal of Political Economy, 2022.
Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the Dearborn Blog editorial team and are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Dearborn Blog does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of third-party reporting or quoted material. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Dearborn Blog does not endorse any particular political candidate or campaign.
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