Howard Stern has scoffed at the idea of Donald Trump launching his own news network to rival Fox News after he leaves office in January, insisting any such venture is doomed to fail within a year.
‘[If] he thinks running the country is hard, wait till he has to run a news network,’ Stern said during his Monday show on SiriusXM. ‘That’ll fail inside a year like all the other businesses. This is just insanity what’s going on.’
The nation’s top-paid radio host, who was friends with Trump before he entered politics, also urged the president to ‘for once do something good’ and stop stirring his ‘loony hillbilly’ supporters into a frenzy with unfounded claims of election fraud.
‘For the good of the country, calm your f***ing loony hillbilly friends and tell them you lost the election and you’re going to help the transition,’ Stern added. ‘These loonies who follow you are all worked up; they think something was taken from you.’
Howard Stern (left) has scoffed at the idea of Donald Trump (right) launching a news network to rival Fox News after he leaves office in January, insisting any such venture is doomed to fail within a year
Stern made the comments while discussing Trump’s recent attacks on Fox News with his co-host Robin Quivers.
Trump’s ire with the network was seemingly struck when Fox News, a platform he had routinely lauded and appeared on throughout his White House term, called the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
The president has since increased his advocacy of conservative networks like One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax, commending their more favourable coverage and urging his supporters to tune into either one of those channels instead.
‘The president all weekend was busy tweeting about Fox News,’ Stern said Monday. ‘He’s mad at them because they actually had some reality over there.’
Quivers, meanwhile, described OANN as ‘a doozy’ that panders to the president’s ego with its coverage.
Stern said he wasn’t overly familiar with OANN, but said he had seen reports speculating the president was interested in starting a news channel where he would have complete control over its output.
Trump has not yet addressed the speculation, but the Wall Street Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners, an investment firm connected to the Republican National Committee, was said to be weighing up a move of acquiring and investing in Newsmax.
The nation’s top-paid radio host, who was friends with Trump before he entered politics, also urged the president to ‘for once do something good’ and stop working his ‘loony hillbilly’ supporters into a frenzy with unfounded claims of election fraud (Stern and Trump pictured together on February 9, 2000)
‘For the good of the country, calm your f***ing loony hillbilly friends and tell them you lost the election and you’re going to help the transition,’ Stern added. ‘These loonies who follow you are all worked up; they think something was taken from you.’ (pictured left to right: Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Beth Ostrosky, Howard Stern and Chris Rock)
The intention behind the move would be to set up Newsmax as a direct competitor to Fox News.
Newsmax has seen an uptick in viewership since Election Day, when some conservatives and Trump-loyalists became vexed that Fox and other similar outlets named Joe Biden the president-elect.
Based in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the Trump International Golf Course sits, Newsmax has also supported Trump throughout the election and rallied behind the President’s unfounded claims of election fraud.
However, on Sunday, the news agency’s CEO Christopher Ruddy said he’s not looking to ‘actively’ sell and said the conservative TV channel would ‘never become Trump TV’.
Ruddy did say, though, that Newsmax would ‘be open’ to the idea of giving Trump his own weekly show on the channel after he leaves office on January 20.
‘He’s going to be a political and media force after he leaves the White House,’ Ruddy added.
Trump has also been rumoured to be weighing up the prospect of starting his own media network from scratch, however the Journal reported that he is currently more focused on attempts to overturn the results of the election – a race he is still yet to concede.
Trump has also been rumoured to be weighing up the prospect of starting his own media network from scratch, however he is currently more focused on attempts to overturn the election results – a race he is still yet to concede
Prior to his tenure as Commander-in-Chief, Trump has a long history of mishaps in the business world, including six bankruptcies stemming from overleveraged casino and hotel ventures in New York City and Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy (above) said he’s not looking to ‘actively’ sell the network and said the conservative TV channel would ‘never become Trump TV’
Within the next four years, Trump also reportedly faces payment deadlines for more than $400 million in loans, while his business empire has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Washington Post.
He is also in the middle of a tax dispute with the IRS over a $72.9 million tax refund he claimed in 2010. If the IRS rules against him, he could owe the federal government more than $100 million.
Having lost his re-election bid, Trump could now face numerous legal problems when he departs the White House on January 20. Joe Biden has already pledged not to pardon Trump if he is convicted on any crimes.
A large crowd on Trump supporters gathered in Washington DC over the weekend for the Million MAGA March to voice support for the president and his unfounded claims that the election was rigged.
Among the thousands-strong crowd were members of the far-right groups the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters.