On Friday, Fox News aired a segment in which random people on the street ostensibly praised President Donald Trump for reversing a wildly unpopular move by his administration. But just as the piece faded to black, the network included one profanely honest opinion about the poorly polling president.
As Fox characterized the story, “Americans interviewed by Fox News Digital were overwhelmingly pleased with President Donald Trump’s decision to call off livestreaming the Fort Hood shooter’s planned firing squad execution after the Pentagon had announced it would be livestreamed for public viewing.” What this sunny assessment neglects to mention is that Trump initially supported the plan “absolutely,” which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had announced with much enthusiasm. Trump’s stance only shifted once he learned that the shooter, Nidal Hasan, was paralyzed from the waist down, and after polling showed that 8 in 10 Americans opposed the public execution. While Fox said the people it spoke with were “pleased,” their words and demeanor were closer to “relieved.”
“I think it was trying to save his image politically,” said one. Another pointed out, “The only other countries that really do that are like North Korea. We don’t want to be North Korea.” The interview agreed that it was “a good move” to cancel the livestream, saying, “A public execution? That’s unheard of. The last time that was in America was nearly a hundred years ago or more.” Said another, “I’m really glad that he called it off because I feel like it’s not really a deterrent. It’s more like a shock effect. I don’t think we really need that in this country right now.”
Hasan was an Army psychiatrist at the time of the shooting, when he killed 13 and injured 32 people at a military base in Texas. Now 56 years old, he uses a wheelchair after he was left partially paralyzed from being shot by police during his arrest. After Hegseth’s announcement that his firing squad execution would be aired live, Trump eventually overturned the move, acknowledging that most Americans didn’t want to see it.
“We don’t need to see anything like that. That’s inhumane,” said one Fox interviewee. Another noted, “I think it was just so clearly an unpopular thing to do that he realized it would probably do more harm to his public image than good.” Another speaker agreed, adding her unvarnished opinion of the president. “He doesn’t want to look bad. He doesn’t want to look like a bad person,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we all know who he really is: a piece of s—.”
According to a Fox poll released earlier this week, “Trump’s overall job approval is 36 percent, his lowest ever in a Fox News survey for either term.” Other polls have shown his support as low as 32 percent. As Fox explains, “The decline is mainly driven by decreases among voters under age 45, those with annual household income below $50,000, non-White voters, and those without a college degree.”