The President’s ‘Experts’ on Any Subject are Mainly Trump-Fluffing Fox News Hacks

There is no question that Donald Trump has ushered in an era of presidential firsts: The first president to welcome and encourage Russian election help; the first to enrich himself by patronizing his own properties; the first to brag about committing sexual assault; the first to tell more than 12,000 lies; the first to engage in childish name-calling; the first to never have a positive favorable polling; the first to malign the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people;” the first to express more loyalty to foreign dictators than to our allies and even our own intelligence community; the first to rip babies from their parents and lock them in cages; the first to … oh hell, this could go on forever.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Another first that Trump has achieved concerns his inner circle of advisors and White House staff. The President of the United States is uniquely positioned to have access to the most experienced and intelligent people in the world. The issues that any president faces require that level of advice and counsel, whether it is about economics, diplomacy, legislation, healthcare, the military, and so much more. But Trump has assembled a confederacy of dunces in his Cabinet who know little about the departments they have been appointed to manage. Rick Perry knows nothing about energy. Ben Carson never spent five minutes studying urban planning. Betsy DeVos has no education background whatsoever. And the rest of the Cabinet is similarly incompetent.

However, none of that really matters because Trump doesn’t turn to them for guidance on any issue anyway. Instead, he consults his “Shadow Cabinet,” the presenters and contributors of Fox News. In many cases Trump has actually tapped Fox hosts for White House jobs. But even when he hasn’t, he still relies on their advice which he gets from his many hours of watching Fox News instead of doing any actual work.

The result of Trump’s addiction to Fox is that he is getting the most shallow, inappropriate, and dangerous advice available from people who have never studied the subjects on which they pontificate on TV. A quick examination of Trump’s Twitter feed revealed that every single person he quoted in the past five days was a TV talker. For instance:

  • Businessman Sam Zell, on CNBC
  • Activist Charlie Kirk on Trish Regan’s Fox News show
  • Lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Host Lou Dobbs of Fox Business
  • Host Steve Hilton of Fox News
  • Evangelical Robert Jeffress on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Attorney Joe DiGenova on Fox News
  • Former GOP congressman Jason Chaffetz on Fox News
  • Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal on Fox News
  • Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham on Fox News
  • James Trusty on Fox News
  • Rep. Pete King on Fox News
  • Bryan Dean Wright on Fox and Friends

That’s just the past five days. He didn’t quote a single expert from any professional or academic source. And these are in addition to dozens of videos posted by Trump of Fox News personalities and contributors like Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, and Tim Fitton of the ultra rightist Judicial Watch. Their political tips contain such useful insights as this one from Lou Dobbs:

Remember, that’s the ranting of a host on an alleged “news” network who is accusing all Democrats of hating America. A more plausible assessment would be that the only way to truly love America is to hate Trump. After all, he’s the one who is constantly tearing down the cherished institutions of the country, from the Constitution, to the the media, to law enforcement, to the military, and more. He’s the one who is trying to destroy America’s natural resources, preserves, air, water, and climate. And he’s the one who is siding with our enemies abroad and the wealthy elites domestically at the expense of the majority of the people.

For the Commander-in-Chief to rely on such a pitifully ignorant cadre of television shills should worry every citizen. But they shouldn’t be surprised. Trump’s prior job was hosting a TV game show, and that’s what he believes reflects a reality that exists only in his diseased brain. He still thinks he’s doing a reality TV show and he doesn’t know that Fox News is an entertainment network. And that delusional departure from sanity is not just a curious quirk.It has the potential to cause great harm if he isn’t stopped – and soon.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.