Vice President JD Vance secretly met with the owners of the right-wing Fox News channel on Tuesday, right as the network has been pushing lies and propaganda about the protests against abusive immigration raids in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press reports that Vance flew to Montana and met with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, his son Lachlan Murdoch (who runs Fox News and the Fox Corporation media empire day-to-day), and other Fox News executives.
The meeting was not on a publicly released schedule for Vance, and his office did not give the press advance notice that the meeting would occur.
The White House hasn’t acknowledged the meeting, let alone revealed what was discussed, such as whether the Trump administration is coordinating messaging and talking points, but history shows that has long been the trend.
Rupert Murdoch founded and launched Fox News in 1996 alongside Republican operative and sexual predator Roger Ailes. For the entirety of its existence Fox has attacked Democrats and the left, regularly promoting racism, homophobia, misogyny, and outright lies and misinformation.
The meeting with Vance occurred while President Donald Trump has deployed military forces to Los Angeles in an attempt to silence protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. The administration ratcheted up those raids after senior officials like Stephen Miller reportedly expressed outrage that mass deportation efforts are failing to find massive quantities of criminal undocumented immigrants that Trump promoted during the 2024 election.
Fox News has for years been at the forefront of right-wing propaganda popularizing false narratives of crimes caused by migrants. In recent days, the network has promoted lies meant to justify Trump’s military action while misleadingly emphasizing the level of violence at protests in LA.
For instance, Fox promoted Trump’s false narrative about the content of his phone call last Friday with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom made it clear that Trump never brought up deploying the National Guard, but then Fox and Trump both pushed the lie alleging that Newsom said there was never a phone call between the two men.
Fox is also pushing hate and conspiracies about protesters, with hosts describing them as “ungrateful children of immigrants.” When Newsom addressed the nation to call out Trump’s invasion, Fox led the right-wing media response, lambasting the governor.
Trump owes much of his political career to Fox, who transitioned him from reality TV host to political pundit by giving him a slot on “Fox & Friends” during the Obama administration. The network has been at his side all along, providing ideas and personnel for both of his administrations while defending him and attacking his political enemies.
His current leadership is packed to the gills with ex-Fox News staffers, from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and most recently in the guise of interim U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro. Trump administration figures like Attorney General Pam Bondi (a former Fox News employee as well) appears more often on Fox News than in any other setting, constantly pushing pro-administration falsehoods and narratives.
From time to time, the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has offered slight criticisms of Trump, particularly in relation to his destructive tariff policies. In response, he called the paper “rotten” and “China-oriented,” and even called for the editorial staff to be replaced.
But the meeting with Vance shows that there are still close bonds at the highest levels between the two camps. Fox has shown time and time again that it is willing to go to bat for Trump, and Trump rewards the network with his attention and praise—a testimony to how intertwined they both are.
Fox even paid out a settlement of $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems after they pushed pro-Trump lies after the 2020 election, and it hasn’t seriously shaken their unholy alliance. Fox and Trump are in this together for the long haul, and Vance’s conveniently timed junket is a reminder of that.