Donald Trump and Roger Ailes set to meet: Will the GOP frontrunner kiss and make up with Fox News -- again?

After Trump reignited his feud with Fox, he's slated to meet its CEO

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published September 24, 2015 7:28PM (EDT)

  (AP/Reuters/Fred Prouser/John Locher/Frank Franklin II/Photo montage by Salon)
(AP/Reuters/Fred Prouser/John Locher/Frank Franklin II/Photo montage by Salon)

Rinse and repeat. Donald Trump and Fox News head Roger Ailes agreed today to meet in-person next week for what may turn out to be the third truce in this seemingly never ending feud.

On Wednesday, the once dominant frontrunner announced his plans to boycott the cable news giant due to its allegedly unfair coverage of his campaign. "Fox News has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won't be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future," Trump tweeted after going off on a second social media rant against the network's star anchor, Megyn Kelly.

Fox News quickly followed Trump's announcement with their own clarification of the record, releasing a statement suggesting that the Trump's boycott was actually due to the network's decision his upcoming appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor."

Trump had previously only threatened to boycott the conservative powerhouse following his spat with Kelly during the first GOP debates but after Ailes reached out to Trump to assure him that he would be treated fairly going forward, it appeared as though the rocky relationship had been mended.

Now Ailes, the CEO of the network, has arranged for a meeting between Trump and senior Fox editorial executives to smooth out this latest tiff. From a Fox News statement released to media outlets today:

Fox News Chairman & CEO Roger Ailes and Donald Trump spoke this morning and plan to have a meeting next week to discuss their differences of opinion regarding Fox's coverage of Mr. Trump's presidential campaign. Ailes will be joined by senior Fox editorial executives. Mr. Trump believes he has been treated unfairly in certain instances. FOX News has held every candidate in this race to the highest journalistic standards throughout our coverage. We believe a candid meeting about our differences is required and that any misunderstandings can be handled without compromising those standards.

No word on when exactly the meeting will take place but Trump denied to CNN's Alisyn Camerota today that Fox News critiques get to him because he claimed to be "very thick skinned."

"I don't mind being criticized. And I don't mind it at all... If I do something wrong, Alisyn, I have very thick skin. I don't mind being criticized. I'll never ever complain, 'cuz I know when I do something wrong, I'm a smart person," Trump said.


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

MORE FROM Sophia Tesfaye


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Donald Trump Fox News Channel Roger Ailes