Trump criticizes Fox: ‘They forgot the Golden Goose’

President Trump on Thursday unleashed on Fox News, retweeting a dozen messages attacking the network and sharing one himself lamenting that Fox “forgot the Golden Goose” that made them successful.

“.@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews,” Trump tweeted.

.@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020

The president also retweeted a dozen different accounts that promoted conservative networks as alternatives to Fox News. Most of those accounts had very few followers and had tweeted only a handful of times.

“Quite right. They’ve been a disaster since the election day. DT has not been given any chance by a clearly corrupt media,” read one tweet that Trump shared. 

Quite right. They’ve been a disaster since the election day. DT has not been given any chance by a clearly corrupt media.

— YMCusA (@beleagueredman) November 12, 2020

The Twitter spree underscores Trump’s still-simmering anger at Fox News after the network projected on election night last week that President-elect Joe Biden would win Arizona. Fox was the first network to project the state would go to Biden, and only The Associated Press followed suit.

Biden still holds a roughly 12,000-vote lead over Trump in the state, and the Democrat is projected as the president-elect regardless of the outcome in Arizona. Still, Trump and his allies have been furious at Fox, believing the network tipped the narrative in Biden’s favor.

The campaign urged surrogates to call the network directly last week to push them to withdraw the Arizona call, according to a person familiar with the matter. The campaign also sent out talking points attacking the head of the Fox News decision desk and highlighting his past contributions to Democratic candidates.

Fox News has stood by its call in Arizona, and, contrary to Trump’s assertion, has boasted high ratings around its election coverage. The network said it attracted 3.2 million viewers during weekdays last week and another 5.9 million viewers in prime time.

Trump became increasingly agitated with Fox News in the final months of the campaign, complaining that its polling was skewed against him and repeatedly bemoaning that its coverage was the biggest difference between 2016 and 2020.

The president’s criticism comes amid speculation over whether he may seek to launch a media venture of his own upon leaving office.

The president bristled at the network’s live coverage of former President Obama’s campaign speeches in the final week of the race, and he has lamented multiple times that the network is not what it once was under the leadership of Roger Ailes, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations in 2016 and died in 2017.