Donald Trump Jr. claims to have been "blacklisted" from appearing on Fox News, but Fox News says he's agreed to appear on the network Wednesday.
According to an Axios exclusive, Trump Jr. stated to a reporter at the Republican National Convention that Rupert Murdoch's media empire is "not what it used to be," and added, "There was a time where if you wanted to survive in the Republican Party, you had to bend the knee to to him or to others. I don't think that's the case anymore."
Fox News disputes the idea that Trump Jr. has been blacklisted from appearing on their network.
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"Prior to the Axios event, Fox & Friends asked him to appear on the show on Wednesday and he has since accepted that booking. He is and always has been welcome on all Fox News Media platforms," said one spokesperson.
Moreover, Axios noted, Trump Jr. was interviewed by a Fox News reporter on Monday during the first day of the convention.
This comes amid reporting that Trump Jr. was a key influence behind his father selecting Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), one of his personal friends, as 2024 GOP running mate.
While Fox News denies a policy against Trump Jr. appearing on their network, some other pro-Trump voices were actually limited or excluded in recent years; MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, for example, was no longer given appearances as both he and Fox News fought defamation lawsuits for pushing disinformation about election equipment manufacturers, and this year the network stopped even running his pillow ads.
Moreover, despite Fox News' centrality in the right-wing media ecosystem, it has sometimes had a rocky relationship with the former president, who has stepped up various attacks on them for not covering him exactly the way he wants and inviting on guests who are sometimes critical of him.
