Donald Trump lavished praise on Trace Gallagher only minutes after the Fox News host was forced into apologizing for a segment in which a reporter on his show accused wrongfully deported dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia of being a killer.
Trump made a signature all-caps show of support for the beleaguered host, describing Gallagher as “GREAT,” adding he was “a totally professional newsman who, at the same time, is highly entertaining, and very interesting.”
Trump made the comments in a Truth Social post less than an hour after Gallagher issued an apology for remarks made by MAGA reporter Monica Paige, who falsely accused the wrongfully deported Maryland man of having “killed Americans.”
Paige, White House correspondent for pro-MAGA outlet Frontlines—the media arm of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA—made the false allegation on a Fox News spot with Gallagher a day earlier, linking Abrego Garcia to failed efforts to block Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
“If you’re going to vote ‘no’ on this, then you’re voting along with Democrats, especially Democrats like [Oregon Representative] Maxine Dexter, who was on the Hill today dressed in a white robe, who also visited El Salvador to go see Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who killed Americans,” Paige said Wednesday. “If you’re not siding with Republicans, then unfortunately, you’re siding with Democrats, anti-American.”
Gallagher didn’t correct Paige during the segment, but Paige later issued an apology and a retraction.
“What I meant to say was that he has been connected with gang activity that has devastated the lives of many people and killed an untold number of Americans,” Paige wrote. “He has not been personally linked to the death of anyone, even while being accused of gang activity, including human trafficking, drug trafficking, and spousal abuse. I misspoke, and I apologize for the mistake.”
Abrego Garcia became a magnet for Trump’s fiercest critics after he was wrongfully deported to a high security prison in El Salvador, and was accused by Trump of being a member of the MS-13 gang.
He was subsequently returned to the United States after multiple legal rulings. He was arrested on arrival back in the U.S. and is being held in detention on allegations of people smuggling.
In court filings, Abrego Garcia has said he suffered mental and physical torture while in the El Salvador prison, including severe beatings, starvation, and sleep deprivation.
“This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser. The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News in response to Abrego Garcia’s claims. “We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”
