After 106 Fox appearances, it was time to make it “official.” It was time for the simple son’s wife, Lara, to commit to Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda network. This was not Lara’s first foray into actually having a job! She was once a producer for Inside Edition. This makes her pretty much the most accomplished member of the Trump family, since she didn’t work for her parents.
This more professionalized Trump, who was a surrogate for her father-in-law during both presidential campaigns, also had a sort of sleazy fake news show called Real News Update, which I know you’ll be surprised to learn largely consisted of propaganda-like content. Lara’s co-anchor for this “show” was none other than fellow Fox News contributor and serial liar Kayleigh McEnany. But that was not all: Lara also led the highly ironic “Women for Trump.” For this work, Lara was paid $180,000. These payments were made through Brad Parscale’s companies as a way of avoiding FEC disclosure requirements. But since Daddy Trump is now just another Palm Beach retiree, it makes sense that Lara would need another entity to fund her lifestyle.
It was during her welcome announcement with the three dumbest morning anchors on TV that Lara said the quiet part loud. It was the kind of thing that might be frowned on by an actual news organization that purported to report the actual news, but Fox no longer even makes a show of being that. “I sort of feel like I've been an unofficial member of the team for so long,” she said. “You guys know, it was kind of a joke over the past five years, I would come there so often that the security guards were like maybe we should just give you a key. So to be a part of the team, I’m so so excited!” And that’s how Lara explained her shift from Republican propagandist paid by a Republican candidate to Republican propagandist paid by a Republican propaganda network
But here’s the thing. Lara has been on the “team” this entire time, because Fox and the Trump administration were (and continue to be) largely one in the same. A lot of news organizations make a real point of at least trying to appear nonpartisan, but Fox doesn’t have the luxury, not that they’d want to. You’ll remember that when Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden, serial child support cheat Jason Miller “frantically” called Fox News demanding a retraction. Perhaps Trumpworld was so used to being able to shape the news around their narrative they thought it might work but Fox’s decision desk wasn’t having it. And Fox’s punishment for trying to accurately report on the 2020 election? Their viewers abandoned them in droves, decamping to Newsmax and Russian propaganda site One America News. But don’t cry for Fox. They did this to themselves. They radicalized their viewers so much they no longer want news interrupting the stream of propaganda. The Murdochs obliged their radicalized viewers by laying off 16 staffers in a “concerted effort to get rid of real journalists.”
Yes, after all that Fox decided to double down on right-wing propaganda.
But what about Lara? Doesn’t Lara feel a little bit sheepish about this move from working for her father-in-law’s campaign to her father-in-law’s favorite propaganda outlet? I have no idea what lurks in the heavily botoxed brow of the simple son’s wife, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and postulate that Lara isn’t losing any sleep over the ethical issues at play. After all Lara is fresh off her very problematic foray with the Big Dog Ranch Rescue, which spent $1.9 million at Trump properties between 2014 and 2021. This seems to be a familiar play by Trump family members. You’ll remember that Eric’s “charity” spent $880,000 at his dad’s golf resorts.
But believe it or not there are bigger ethical problems than the propaganda White House Möbius strip. There’s a real chance Lara will run for Richard Burr’s North Carolina Senate seat. Fox gave Sarah Huckabee Sanders a paying platform before her Arkansas governor race too. I know Lara isn’t officially running yet but this feels like it should be a violation of the equal-time rule, which requires networks not to have their finger on the scale for a particular candidate. But then Fox has had its finger on the scale since it was formed in the mid-1990s. In this case though, Fox is almost behaving like the Heritage Foundation: a well-paying place for Republicans to cool their heels and collect some cash before going back into government. Mike Pence is now a distinguished visiting fellow at Heritage. He joins illegal acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli. But somehow Fox doing it feels more craven than a think tank doing it.
Lara is the first of the Trump spawns to manage to actually do anything since their father’s presidential defeat and subsequent armed insurrection. Most of the Trump kids have spent the last few months milling around Florida, being sued, posting stupid videos on the internet, and fighting with Liz Cheney, which, while somewhat amusing to watch, doesn’t actually earn them any money. Will Lara be the next senator from North Carolina? She’s completely unqualified, so probably? Either way, she does seem to be the most ambitious of the crew, which is not saying much.
