The president spent his holiday tweeting at the television

Trump livetweeted Fox on eight of the 11 days of his Florida trip

Published January 3, 2018 3:59AM (EST)

 (Getty/Drew Angerer/Salon)
(Getty/Drew Angerer/Salon)

This article originally appeared on Media Matters.

President Donald Trump left the White House December 22 for an extended holiday vacation at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Florida. Along with daily games of golf at Trump International Golf Club and an appearance at Mar-a-Lago’s ethically dubious New Year’s Eve party, the president found time to regularly engage in one of his favorite pastimes: watching Fox News programming and tweeting about it.

I traced 12 of Trump’s tweets from December 22 through his January 1 return to the capital to Fox segments Trump appeared to be watching at the time. Trump live-tweeted various Fox programs on eight of the 11 days he spent on vacation. He even seems to have tweeted based on a segment he watched on Air Force One en route to Florida.

With some of these tweets, the president simply continued his ongoing feuds with the media and the FBI. But others could have real ramifications for U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics. In response to Fox’s programming, Trump tweeted about protests in Iran, issued an ultimatum to Democrats over immigration policy, attacked China over its handling of North Korea, and endorsed a Republican congressman for governor of Florida.

Trump loves Fox & Friends, the network’s morning show, often holding up the program’s shockingly sycophantic anchors as a model that other, more critical journalists should emulate.

The day before he left for Florida, Trump praised the program’s anchors for being named the “most influential media figures” by Mediaite. The anchors received that designation because of Trump, who watched the program obsessively, frequently tweeting about what he saw.

And indeed, Trump tweeted based on Fox & Friends and its weekend editions on December 22, December 24, December 26, December 28, December 29, and December 31.

Here are the Trump tweets and the associated Fox segments:

December 22

December 23

December 24

December 25

December 26

December 27

December 28

December 29

December 30

December 31

January 1

After returning to Washington, D.C., yesterday, the president seems to have spent much of the morning live-tweeting "Fox & Friends and Fox’s America’s Newsroom":


By Matt Gertz

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