‘Fox & Friends’ Mocked For Graphic Claiming That Claimed Donald Trump ‘Cut Aid To 3 Mexican Countries’
The graphics department at Fox & Friends might use a lesson in geography.
The Fox News morning show earned plenty of ridicule this weekend for a graphic posted during a segment about Donald Trump cutting aid to Central American countries. Trump had announced cutting federal aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, three countries he said are sending migrants to the U.S. border.
But at Fox & Friends, the segment instead claimed that Donald Trump was cutting aid to “3 Mexican Countries.” As many pointed out, Mexico is only one country, not three, and Trump is not cutting aid to it.
As Reuters reported, Trump was prompted to cut off aid amid a surge in asylum seekers from violence-ravaged Central American countries in recent weeks. Trump claimed that the three countries had “set up” migrant caravans that were sent north through Mexico to the U.S. border.
In remarks on Saturday, Trump also said there was a “very good likelihood” that he would close the border if Mexico did not stop migrants from reaching the border, a threat he has made before during the immigration debate.
This is not the first time that Fox & Friends has been targeted for a head-scratching graphic. Back in January, the show was blasted for putting up a graphic claiming that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died.
As The Hill reported, the graphic prompted an apology from the Fox & Friends hosts.
“We need to apologize. … A technical error in the control room triggered a graphic of RBG with a date on it,” co-host Steve Doocy said later in the program. “We don’t want to make it seem anything other than that was a mistake. That was an accident.”
But by then the damage was done, and the graphic was used to fuel a far-right conspiracy theory that Ginsburg was secretly dead. At the time, Ginsburg was recovering from surgery to remove cancerous nodules from her lungs, and conspiracy theorists claimed that she had actually passed away and that Democrats were only making it seem as if she were alive — Weekend At Bernies-style, critics pointed out — so Donald Trump would not be able to fill another Supreme Court vacancy.
How Stupid Is @foxandfriends?
'Trump Cuts U.S. Aid To 3 Mexican Countries'
???? @edhenry @PeteHegseth pic.twitter.com/taJwXhjEt8
— Bad Fox Graphics (@BadFoxGraphics) March 31, 2019
It is not clear if Trump will be able to cut aid to the three Central American countries. He would need congressional approval in order to take away the funding, and Democratic leaders have already spoken out against the idea.
