The president and the Fox News morning show have built a symbiotic relationship: the program defends Trump as it helps set his agenda

“I like that group of three people,” Donald Trump said this month. “They had a man who was saying: ‘Trump is the greatest president ever and there will never be one like him.’”

Trump was referring to Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade – the hosts of Fox & Friends – and a segment he had seen on the show. It’s one of the president’s favorite programs, and it may well be the most influential television program in the world.

On 7 March, the president tweeted five times in direct response to topics discussed during the three-hour Fox & Friends, on the Fox News Channel. It wasn’t a one-off.

On 29 November, Trump suggested that anyone caught burning the American flag should lose their citizenship or spend “a year in jail”. He sent his tweet at 6.55am ET – 30 minutes after Fox & Friends ran a piece about a protest in which someone burned the American flag.

At 6.04am on 26 January, Trump blasted off a tweet about Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower whose sentence was commuted by Barack Obama. Manning had just published an article critical of the former president.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump visits the show in 2011. Photograph: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

“Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader,” Trump wrote. “Terrible!”

At 5.50am, Fox & Friends had carried a banner that referred to Manning as an “ungrateful traitor”. Mediaite noted that the anchor that day, Abby Huntsman, had said Manning was “slamming President Obama as a weak leader”.

The next month, Trump echoed a Fox & Friends suggestion that UC Berkeley should not receive federal funding. He also mused that Obama had been too soft on Russia – 12 minutes after Fox & Friends held a discussion about how Obama had been too soft on Russia.

Fox News turned down an interview request for this piece, but by any standard its morning show has had a remarkable year. As Trump’s popularity soared, so too did the number of people watching.

According to Nielsen media research, between February 2016 and February 2017, the program increased its viewership by 46% – averaging 1.7m viewers a day last month. It is by far the most popular morning show on cable; on average, MSNBC’s Morning Joe brought in 847,000 viewers this February, while CNN’s New Day reached just 639,000.

Fox & Friends, which airs every weekday, is in some ways a typical breakfast show. It combines light, fun features – a recurring item on Monday was a video of a toddler getting swept off her feet by a door; on Thursday the show celebrated National Puppy Day, with harder news and commentary favorable to Trump.



On Monday, Trump was being criticized in much of the mainstream media – as he has been for weeks – over alleged ties to Russia among his campaign aides. In the Fox & Friends studio, efforts were being made to tell viewers why Russia connections don’t matter.

FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) "Put the narrative aside. Report real news." -Mom Deborah Antignano on media's coverage of alleged Russia-Trump campaign ties pic.twitter.com/kn1kJhqCyh

The people tasked with this were the “Security Moms” – a group of four women, presumably mothers, who are sporadically wheeled out to discuss national security issues.

Appearing above a chyron that said “News You Can’t Use”, the four women set about trying to convince themselves, and viewers, that American families are just not interested in reports that Trump advisers may have been colluding with Russia to help him win the election.

Earhardt kicked off proceedings by asking the Security Moms, who were seated in tiers like the members of Queen in the Bohemian Rhapsody video, if any of them were “concerned that President Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to get elected?”

“No,” the moms said as one.

“They want to uphold this narrative as if it’s factual and it’s not factual,” said Deborah Antignano.

A caption popped up, identifying her as the mother of a 13-year-old girl.

President Trump parrots Fox News again with attack on Chelsea Manning Read more

“Report real news. Do away with the fake news. Because Americans, quite frankly, we’re all tired of it.”

That was the end of that. Except later that day came a bombshell.

The FBI director, James Comey, told the House intelligence committee the FBI was investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He added that there was no basis to support Trump’s claims that he had been wiretapped by Obama.

For Fox & Friends, this presented a problem. They had to address Comey’s testimony: it was the news of the day. But they had to do it in a way that told the viewers – including the president – there was nothing to see here.

They had already deployed the Security Moms on Monday. They couldn’t summon them again. There are no Security Dads. Something else was required.

The solution was to clip together 20 instances of Comey declining to comment and tell viewers: “You didn’t miss much.”

FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) If you missed yesterday's congressional hearing with FBI Dir. James Comey, you didn't miss much... pic.twitter.com/AnJdtWcGxK

‘A hostile work environment’

In Fox & Friends’ world, Trump is never wrong and everyone always loves Trump. It’s quite a contrast with the liberal world of New York City, where the show is filmed.



The Fox News studio is one block south from where NBC’s Today show is broadcast, and four blocks north of ABC’s Good Morning America. Those two shows average about 4.5m viewers and their studios are common tourism spots.

People stand at windows behind the presenters, waving frantically and calling family members to tell them to turn on the television. The shows encourage this – both have sections on their websites giving directions for fans. Every day, scores of people line up outside. It’s fun. It’s convivial.

Fox & Friends, despite also being filmed against a backdrop of midtown Manhattan, does not do this. If anything, the studio is hidden away. If you manage to find the address, all you are met with is the imposing grey concrete of Fox News’ brutalist headquarters.

There’s no opportunity to stand outside. No ogling through the windows. The backdrop of the show is a view of Sixth Avenue – but filmed from 50ft up. If you’re committed, you can still get onscreen, as the Guardian did on Wednesday. But you’ll never be more than a blob in the distance.

Unwelcoming and fortress-like, Fox News HQ stands in stark contrast with Fox & Friends the show. With those videos of toddlers toppling over, the puppy visits and the reassuring asininity of the Security Moms, it’s a warm and cozy place.

The three hosts seem to get along well. Doocy, who looks a bit like a scarecrow who’s just had his hair done, is the alpha male. Kilmeade, a New Yorker with close-set eyes and a childlike curiosity, is the everyman. Then there’s Earhardt, a former CBS reporter who is probably the most intelligent person associated with the show.

But despite the apparent intimacy, Fox & Friends has not always been a happy place to work. For seven and a half years, Gretchen Carlson got to sit alongside Doocy and Kilmeade. But she was bumped in 2013 and then, in June 2016, fired from Fox News altogether. She brought a lawsuit against the channel’s then chairman, Roger Ailes, accusing him of sexual harassment. Fox News settled for a reported $20m. Ailes resigned in July.

Carlson’s complaint was filed against Ailes, but it also named Doocy. Her fellow presenter had created a “hostile work environment”, Carlson’s claim said, by “regularly treating her in a sexist and condescending way, including by putting his hand on her and pulling down her arm to shush her during a live telecast”.

Doocy stayed on, apparently unpunished. Fox News did not respond to questions about whether he ever faced disciplinary action.



‘Do you love Trump?’

The mutually beneficial relationship between Trump and Fox & Friends – you provide feather-smoothing, ego-boosting coverage, I agree to tweet positive things about your program and sometimes appear on it – did not spring out of nowhere.

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For four years before running for president, Trump had his own slot. He appeared weekly, usually by phone, on “Mondays with Trump”.

The segment was a platform for the kind of rambling, free-form missives that came to characterize his 2016 campaign. Trump would call up to weigh in on a variety of issues – sometimes war, sometimes jobs, sometimes the Oscars and, increasingly often, Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

Fox & Friends would air the billionaire’s claims without criticism, and with no acknowledgment of how damaging they were.

In a March 2011 clip discussing the issue of whether Obama had been born in the US – he was – Trump said, without evidence, that the then president had “spent millions of dollars trying to get away from this issue”. At the end of the conversation, the hosts chuckled.

“Donald Trump, who we all know was born in this country. All you have to do is read the side of his building,” Kilmeade said.

The Fox & Friends hosts would frequently ask Trump if he was going to run for president. At times, they seemed to be actively encouraging it.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest A ‘celebrity stroll’ with Donald Trump.

In a clip from 7 May 2015, Kilmeade went on a “celebrity stroll” with Trump – a walk down Fifth Avenue that was essentially an exercise in showing Fox & Friends viewers just how popular, and how electable, Trump was.

“You seem to have this natural relationship with the so-called blue-collar worker,” Kilmeade told Trump, who pointed out – possibly using “alternative facts” – how many people on the street seemed to like him.



“Look at the response,” Trump said, pointing at five people who remained silent as he walked past.

A little later, a truck drove past and the driver leaned out of the window.

“Do you love Trump?” Kilmeade shouted.

“I know you,” the driver responded.

If he did love Trump, he had a funny way of showing it.

“I enjoyed being with you. I love your show,” Trump told Kilmeade.



Then the future president, not known for the consistency of his views, showed that when it comes to Fox & Friends, at least, his commitment has never wavered.



“The three of you are fantastic people,” he said of the hosts. “I wouldn’t do this for anybody but you.”