Is Trump trying to force Fox News to replace its top media host with a MAGA sycophant?

Over the course of his first few months back in the White House, Donald Trump has made no secret of his irritation with Fox News personalities and other key cogs of Rupert Murdoch’s conservative media empire that he believes aren’t showing him the proper amount of loyalty and obsequiousness.

With the president’s poll numbers cratering amid a spate of self-imposed crises and accusations of authoritarianism, Trump has increasingly lashed out at Murdoch world for allowing some form of criticism against him to seep through Fox and News Corp’s pages and airwaves.

And in one specific case this week, it appears that the president is urging one Fox News host to “retire” so he can be replaced with a more servile and sycophantic commentator who recently wrote a book about how Trump had the “greatest comeback ever.” Notably, that same MAGA pundit has been pushed by Trump confidant Sean Hannity to take over the network’s weekly media show for years now.

Having already called for Fox News’ pollster to be “investigated for election fraud” over its latest survey, Trump spent much of his Sunday – whenever he wasn’t calling for foreign films to be tariffed or posting AI images of himself as a Sith – blasting Murdoch media figures for not fully having his back.

Namely, he fumed at “total loser” Karl Rove – a frequent target of the president – for criticizing the administration’s policies and slamming Trump for portraying himself as the pope. Additionally, on his Air Force One trip back to Washington on Sunday night, he browbeat a Wall Street Journal reporter, telling her she worked for a “rotten newspaper” that’s “truly gone to hell.” (The president has been incensed in recent months over the Murdoch-owned paper’s editorial board, which has been highly critical of his economic policies and chaotic first 100 days in office.)

At the same time, he also took to Truth Social to bash Fox News media host Howard Kurtz, claiming that the MediaBuzz anchor had done an insufficient job of coming to the president’s defense during a segment about the ouster of national security advisor Mike Waltz.

“It is time for Howie Kurtz to retire!” Trump blared on Sunday night. “Every Woke Anchor in the Business, people that no one watched from CNN, MSDNC, and others, are plastered all over his show, with all really negative and fake statements, and then I am weakly “defended” by Howie and his group (although Ben Domenech has been strong!). The case Howie makes for me is so pathetic that it would be a lot better if he didn’t say anything. Anyway, that’s the way it is!”

Notably, though, the post that preceded the president’s takedown of Kurtz featured Trump highly praising a Fox News media critic who has largely been seen as the heir apparent of the MediaBuzz chair once the 71-year-old Kurtz decides to hang it up – or is forced to do so.

“Joe Concha has written an incredible new book, ‘THE GREATEST COMEBACK EVER: Inside Trump’s Big Beautiful Campaign.’ Joe has been studying our Movement from the very beginning and understands, far better than the many other so-called ‘experts,’ the Iconic Moments that contributed to our truly Historic Election,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “We broke through the Fake News, which is getting worse by the hour, and exposed the TRUTH of the many challenges our Nation is facing — and WON BIG. THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”

The juxtaposition of the two Fox News analysts is likely no accident.

For years now, Hannity – a close friend of the president’s who has been described as the White House shadow chief of staff – has made it clear within the halls of Fox News that he would like to see Concha take over the reins of the network’s Sunday media show.

“So the ‘inside scoop’ is that Sean Hannity has long wanted Joe Concha to host Fox’s show about media, which is currently hosted by Howard Kurtz,” the Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr reported in late 2021.

Indeed, several Fox News insiders told me at the time that the Fox News primetime star had been championing Concha – a right-wing media columnist who has now written multiple pro-Trump books – to supplant Kurtz behind the scenes, which is why he finally began making those pleas on air.

“I think he’d have a great TV show here on Fox on media,” Hannity said while introducing Concha for an October 2021 segment, prompting the two to debate what the name of the show should be.

“I think Joe Concha: Setting the Record Straight. How’s that?” Hannity proposed. After Concha said the title was a “bit chunky,” Hannity quipped: “OK, if you keep this up, I’m going to stop advocating for the show.”

A Fox News source told The Independent on Monday that “Hannity still wants Concha to replace Howie,” though they hadn’t heard anything about the Fox News star coordinating with the president on his social media posts.

Since coming over to Fox News in 2013 after hosting CNN’s Reliable Sources for 15 years, much of Kurtz’s coverage has centered on what he sees as an intrinsic liberal bias in the media, especially when it comes to covering Trump. In fact, Kurtz wrote a book during Trump’s first term titled Media Madness, arguing throughout that the mainstream press was unfairly treating the president.

At the same time, as he’s largely criticized the media for its negative coverage of the president, Kurtz has gone to great lengths to suggest that he is not an overt supporter of Trump and is merely analyzing how the press reports on Trump and his political movement. He’s also seen himself on the receiving end of MAGA backlash whenever he has pushed back on Trump’s narratives.

During the final weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, for instance, Kurtz scored a wide-ranging interview with Trump that featured the Fox News host repeatedly inserting a number of fact checks – something that infamously gets under the president’s skin.

Besides correcting the record on Trump’s comments about the January 6 attack and the 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris, Kurtz also contrasted Trump’s campaign with that of the Democratic presidential nominee.

“After our interview, Donald Trump flew to Pennsylvania, Arnold Palmer’s hotel, where he discussed the golfer’s size of his manhood, dismissed Kamala Harris with a curse word, and asked the old Reagan question, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’” Kurtz noted. “The vice president was in Atlanta, where she made the case for abortion rights, said Trump lacked compassion, and was joined by the family of a Georgia woman who died and didn’t receive proper medical care due to abortion restrictions.”

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.