It finally happened! Live on The Ingraham Angle, Fox News, and Donald Trump‘s once-strong alliance just took a hit. One of the network’s most vocal conservative speakers, Laura Ingraham, wandered from the script and questioned Trump in an interview that is now polarizing the MAGA community. On March 18, 2025, the segment in question was aired.
It started with Donald Trump, who was riffing on Canada and insisting the U.S.’s northern neighbor should become the “51st state.” But when Ingraham questioned why he was “tougher” on Canada than on America’s actual enemies, things plummeted.
Trump described Canada as “one of the nastiest countries to deal with” and accused its former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s team of “dishonesty.” He then claimed Canada slaps a 250% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which was “crazy.” Ingraham said that the trade deficit stood at around $60 million, to which Donald Trump said that it is “much more.”
Within minutes of the interview, Ingraham’s mentions on X (formerly Twitter) went off. “You were so rude,” one Trump loyalist fumed. Another accused her of “an ambush like 60 Minutes.” Someone else declared, “We’re boycotting you. You sounded like a CNN journalist.”
Trump is so out of touch with everyday Americans, he doesn’t even know how long a typical mortgage lasts. Ingraham steps in to help him out, but it’s just embarrassing how disconnected from reality this guy is. pic.twitter.com/WUzr90rMJd
— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) November 11, 2025
Fox News has served as Trump’s unofficial PR unit for many years. However, Ingraham’s abrupt shift suggests that even Fox might be feeling the pinch from Trump’s dropping approval ratings. Trump’s popularity has declined among young voters, according to a recent study of U.S. polling data by The Conversation. It turns out 62% of young Americans (between the ages of 18 and 29) had a poor opinion of him, according to a May Economist/YouGov poll, all while only 35% agreed with how he took care of inflation.
Also, one of the best signs of Trump’s support for a long time has been Fox News’ viewing figures. Voting for Trump was almost exactly correlated with watching Fox, per the 2024 U.S. Cooperative Election Study — up to 60% of viewers approved of him in some states. But you can tell the message isn’t getting through when the mouthpiece begins to ask more difficult questions.
As Trump’s appeal dips, Fox has been adjusting its priorities. Executives at the network have been under strain to uphold their reputation while retaining the interest of their MAGA fans. In the meantime, Donald Trump’s team has been working to silence the media. He has claimed to have changed White House press access to favor outlets that back him and wants to make it “illegal” for networks like CNN and MSNBC to speak out against him. Even Fox doesn’t seem as eager to repeat the entirety of what he says these days.
BREAKING: Trump tells Laura Ingram that the east wing of the White House was “despanded”.
Note: Despanded is a made-up word.
And Joe Biden is the one who supposedly has dementia…. pic.twitter.com/S2awhfI8mQ
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) November 11, 2025
Even so, Ingraham’s discussion might not be an apparent protest. Her refusal to allow President Donald Trump to use fake data about trade points to a change within Fox News. That is a major one for a network whose identity has been linked with Trumpism for nearly a decade. Yet, Fox runs the risk of hurting the viewers who helped it develop into the most popular channel as it experiments with its authority. After the segment, a mass of Trump supporters pledged boycotts, exactly like what happened when he was booed during an NFL game. Fox might be taking the bet that the short-term anger is worth keeping its journalistic credibility.
For whatever reason, the media landscape of 2025 is getting interesting again, as Fox News challenges Trump on-air!
