President Donald Trump frequently treats Fox News as his personal megaphone, with critics arguing that the network functions largely as state-sponsored propaganda for his administration.
So, in a remarkable twist on Thursday evening, Trump attempted to humiliate a Fox reporter for disagreeing with his rhetoric about the ongoing war with Iran, labeling Johnathan Hunt as “particularly inaccurate.”
But “Special Report” host Brett Baier promptly corrected him in a rare rebuke of the president on the network.
The trouble began when Trump took to his social media platform Thursday to vent about Hunt after disagreeing with Hunt’s reporting.
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“Jonathan Hunt of FoxNews produced a particularly inaccurate report on the Failing Islamic Republic of Iran. I don’t want to meet, they do. In fact, they are begging to strike a deal. Bret Baier should straighten out his flunkies, for a change!” Trump demanded.
A short time later, Baier complied with the president, but not in the manner Trump seems to have expected.
Baier began, “Just moments ago, the president, I assume while flying to Texas, he’s just landed there, put out a Truth Social…”
But then he unexpectedly contradicted Trump, something almost unheard of on the president’s favored network.
“First of all, Jonathan Hunt’s not a ‘flunky,’ he’s a great reporter,” Baier corrected Trump.
“And second of all, Mr. President, we didn’t say that you wanted to meet; in fact, we aired a sound bite that you didn’t want to meet, and there are no negotiations,” the host continued, contradicting Trump live on air.
“We said that Secretary Bessent is hoping to meet with G20 countries to increase the pressure on Iran, and that Gulf state allies are inside Tehran trying to get Iran to agree to concessions. That is what he said,” Baier bluntly told Trump.
Social media erupted in surprise and humor, laughing about Baier’s humiliation of Trump.
“The pivot of a lifetime!” an X user noted.
This user found Baier’s correction comical, “That is just too funny!”
Another X user put it quite bluntly himself, “Nothing like Bret Baier of Fox News getting fed up with Trump’s BS and calling him out directly on air.”
“About time,” another observed above a clip of Bair correcting Trump.
Trump launched an unapproved war on Iran on Feb. 28 without notifying U.S. allies — with the exception of co-attacker Israel — and saying at first it was about regime change and Tehran’s ballistic weapons systems.
Over the next week, his story shifted as the Iranian government did not fall after the joint American-Israeli initial strikes killed some 50 members of Iran’s top leadership. He then said he launched his military campaign to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. In sticking to that story, he claimed the regime was within a week of having an atomic weapon, echoing a long-running theme from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Members of his administration subsequently testified that was not the case, that in fact they were still years away.
As the war dragged on, depleting crucial U.S. munitions stockpiles, Iran closed down the critical Strait of Hormuz, causing global energy prices to spike.
Trump repeatedly claimed his war was close to an end. In May, he paraded out a memorandum of understanding with Iran that he claimed would eventually end the fighting.
By June, the MOU had collapsed, and Trump launched strikes on Tehran again, which tightened its blockade of the Strait.
Trump then turned to economic sanctions, hoping to force the regime back to the bargaining table over its nuclear ambitions.
Trump claimed Thursday that Iran is now “begging to make a deal,” according to CBS News, but Tehran has disputed that.
And while he first said the war would last just six weeks, CBS reported, he now insists it will last “as long as necessary.”
