A sitting president of the United States went on social media and told a cable news network to fire one of its hosts. Not behind closed doors. Not through intermediaries. He posted it on Truth Social for the entire world to see, addressed it directly to Fox News executives, and signed off with “Thank you for your attention to this matter” like it was a memo from HR.
The target? Jessica Tarlov, the lone liberal voice on Fox News’ massively popular show The Five. And this wasn’t a one-off rant. Throughout April 2026, Donald Trump went after Tarlov at least three separate times — each post meaner than the last — while also dragging Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream into the crossfire. It’s one of the most aggressive public campaigns a president has ever waged against a specific TV personality on a network that’s supposed to be on his side.
The Truth Social Post That Started It All
On the evening of April 6, 2026, Trump published a Truth Social post that hit two Fox News hosts at once. He went after Shannon Bream first, scolding her for getting the name of a bill wrong — “It’s not the Save Act, it’s the Save America Act, a big difference!” — and accusing her of letting Democratic congressman Jake Auchincloss spew “propaganda and lies” on her show without pushing back.
But the real venom was reserved for Tarlov. Trump addressed “Fox executives only” — as if the rest of the internet couldn’t read it — and demanded they remove Tarlov from the air. His words were blunt: “She is, from her voice, to her lies, and everything else about her, one of the worst personalities on television, a real loser! People cannot stand watching her.”
The post went viral almost immediately. Journalists, political commentators, and regular people all had the same reaction: Did the president of the United States just publicly demand that a TV network fire someone because he doesn’t like what she says?
What Set Trump Off
The timing of Trump’s first broadside matters. It came on the same day he was managing his foreign policy conflict with Iran — specifically Operation Epic Fury and tensions over the Strait of Hormuz. He appeared to take a deliberate break from that crisis to go after two female Fox News hosts.
What seems to have gotten under his skin was a Bream interview with Rep. Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat who criticized Trump’s Iran strategy and compared his approach unfavorably to trade negotiations with China. Trump apparently watched the segment and fumed that Bream didn’t cut Auchincloss off or correct him in real time.
As for Tarlov, the friction wasn’t new. She’d been a consistent thorn in Trump’s side for months, pushing back on his polling numbers and criticizing his policy decisions during her regular appearances on The Five. But something about April 2026 made Trump decide enough was enough.
Tarlov Didn’t Flinch
If Trump expected his post to scare Tarlov into softening her commentary, he miscalculated badly. The very next day — April 8 — Tarlov went on air and threw cold water on Trump’s claim of a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
“I stand, I think, in reality that there is no ceasefire,” she said on The Five, pointing out that while the White House was announcing a ceasefire, “missiles were still flying across Israel, Iran, and Lebanon.” She called the ceasefire a “complete fiction” and doubled down on X (formerly Twitter), writing that the White House was “forced to backtrack” because Iran’s proposed 10-point deal was unworkable.
She also went further than most Fox News hosts would ever dare, saying: “Let’s be honest about how we got here: there was never an imminent threat to the U.S. Now we’re stuck in it, negotiating from a weakened position.” That’s not a comment designed to make friends in the West Wing.
Round Two: It Got Personal
Ten days later, on April 17, Trump came back for more. This time, he dropped any pretense of policy disagreement and went straight for personal attacks. He called Tarlov “one of the least attractive and talented people” on television and complained that “her voice is so grating and terrible, I had to turn her off!”
What triggered this second wave? Tarlov had gone on The Five that same day and cited polling data showing Trump sitting at a 35 percent approval rating. She also said that “no Americans wanted the tariffs, they didn’t want the war in Iran, and they don’t want the ballroom.”
Trump fired back that Tarlov “makes up poll numbers, and nobody challenges her, because she is so boring.” He claimed CNN had him at “100 percent” approval and ended with all caps: “GET HER OFF THE AIR, SHE IS BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY!”
That’s at least three public demands for Tarlov’s firing in a single month. The escalation in tone was hard to miss — the first post called her a “loser,” the third attacked her appearance and voice.
Tarlov Used the Moment to Sell Books
Tarlov’s response to the April 17 attack was almost too perfect. Rather than getting defensive or emotional, she posted on social media: “Guess I’ll take this opportunity to mention that my numbers are far from fake — Trump really is that unpopular. And you can pre order my
