It was a relatively brief segment, but Fox News made a significant break with reality this week. The cable news giant seemingly revived its retired “We report, you decide” slogan during a bizarre episode that featured video evidence debunking one of Donald Trump’s lies while suggesting to its viewers that the footage, in fact, backed up the president’s claim.
On Sunday, Trump took to Truth Social to spread his campaign of retribution against blue states. He threatened to revoke federal funding for rebuilding Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge and slammed Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore for allegedly asking in a “nasty and provocative tone that I walk the streets of Maryland with him.”
“I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision,” Trump wrote. “As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this crime disaster before I go there for a walk.”
Moore, a first-term governor rumored to be a top 2028 presidential contender, was quick to hit back. “It’s interesting the president seems to be more concerned about my future than he is about the future of the American people, and that’s why I’m asking him to keep his focus,” he told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
The easily trolled Trump took the bait. During an Oval Office press availability on Monday, the president claimed that Baltimore, which is experiencing its lowest homicide rate in 50 years, is a “horrible death bed.” He then went on to recount when he and Moore met privately at the Army-Navy football game in Landover, Md., in Dec. 2024.
“I met him at the Army-Navy game,” Trump said of Moore. “They said, ‘Oh there’s Gov. Moore, he’d love to see you.’ He came over to me, he hugged me, shook my hand — you were there — he said, ‘Sir, you’re the greatest president of my lifetime.’ I said, ‘That’s really nice that you say that. I’d love you to say it publicly, but I don’t think you can do that, so it’s okay,’ but, ‘No, sir, you’re doing a fantastic job, I want to just shake your hand.’”
Moore was, again, quick to respond. “Lol,” he wrote on X, reposting the video of Trump’s claims, followed by another comment: “Keep telling yourself that, Mr. President.”
He later clarified his response in an interview with Baltimore’s WBAL Radio. “When I say that conversation never happened, that imaginary conversation never happened, I mean that conversation never happened.”
Hours later, Fox News decided to weigh in. “Who’s telling the truth?” host Will Cain asked, before proceeding with apparent sarcasm. “If only we had the footage that President Trump had referenced about them meeting at the Army-Navy game. Thanks to ‘The Art of the Surge’ on Fox Nation, we have the footage.”
Cain then aired video from the game taken by a crew filming a Trump documentary series for the network’s streaming service. While the footage did show Moore cordially shaking Trump’s hand before the two briefly discussed efforts to rebuild the Key bridge, there is never a hug or any praise remotely resembling what Trump claimed.
“Welcome back to Maryland, sir. Welcome back to Maryland. It’s good to see you,” Moore greeted Trump. “We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” Moore said, noting that “we are going to be able to open the Key Bridge under your watch.”
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“We’ll help you out,” Trump replied.
“Thank you, sir,” Moore said.
In his segment, Cain admitted, “We didn’t hear there ‘greatest president ever. But we did hear a lot of enthusiasm and ‘So excited to meet you, Mr. President!’” Still, he insisted, the truth was up for debate.
“Who’s telling the truth? We’ll let you decide.”
Even though it is alarming that Trump, who has a peculiar record of confusing elected officials who are Black men, makes up these conversations with such conviction, I expect him to lie. What I find more disturbing is that Fox News’ attempt to back up his lie now includes airing direct evidence that contradicts him. It feels like we’ve jumped the shark — even for Fox News. Yet there are signs the strategy may be working. The top comment on Fox News’ YouTube post of the segment makes the leap Cain is seemingly hoping for: “Context says [Moore] said it. He was like a child meeting his hero.”
Outside the MAGA media bubble, it was covered as a rare Fox News rebuke of the president. “Video debunks Trump’s claim that Md. governor called him the ‘greatest president,’” the Washington Post wrote. “Behind-the-scenes video disproves Trump’s claim that Gov. Moore called him ‘greatest president of my lifetime,’” CNN noted in a fact-check of the story.
But hours later, Trump used the Fox clip to bolster his claim. “I didn’t realize it was on camera. Did you see? They caught him on camera? I was at a game, I don’t know, like the Army-Navy game or something. And I met them in a hallway. And, as usual, you do your job very well. One of these great cameramen had it on tape. But I met this gentleman. I never met him before. ‘Sir, you’re doing a great job. You’re doing an unbelievable job. Thank you very much.’”
Since it debuted the day after Trump inauguration in January, Will Cain’s show has grown in popularity, becoming the highest-rated daytime show on Fox News with an average of 2.3 million daily viewers, according to ADWEEK. But his dodgy tactics represent a new moral low — even for Fox News.
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