Donald Trump bashed Fox News, his on-again-off-again favourite news network, on social media on Wednesday, proclaiming that “nobody can ever trust” its reporting.
Trump’s screed appeared to be in response to former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s appearance on the network over a week ago, when he said Trump was unfit for office.
“Nobody can ever trust Fox News, and I am one of them, with the weak and ineffective RINO, Paul Ryan, on its Board of Directors,” the presumed Republican nominee for president wrote, using the acronym for “Republican in name only.”
“He’s a total lightweight, a failed and pathetic Speaker of the House, and a very disloyal person,” the former president continued.
A representative for Fox News didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the former president’s remarks.
Ryan’s criticism during his June 11 appearance focused on Trump’s character.
“If you put yourself above the Constitution, as he has done, I think that makes you unfit for office,” he said.
The former House speaker, who retired midway through Trump’s stint in office, also blamed the former president for recent Republican election losses.
“He’s cost us a lot of seats,” Ryan said. “He cost us the Senate twice. He cost us the House because he is nominating, he is pushing through the primaries people who cannot win general elections but who pledge fealty to him.”
It’s true that several candidates Trump propelled forward have cost the Republican seats in recent years, including ex-NFL player Herschel Walker in Georgia and venture capitalist Blake Masters in Arizona.
Trump regularly sours on Fox News whenever one of the network’s hosts says anything he finds damaging to him. In January, he even lashed out at his press secretary-turned-Fox News contributor Kayleigh McEnany after she suggested he work on uniting the Republican Party more.
“I don’t need any advice from RINO Kayleigh McEnany on Fox,” Trump wrote on social media.