Peter Navarro calls on Cabinet secretaries, officials to boycott Fox

Top trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday called on cabinet officials and supporters of President Trump to boycott appearing on Fox News over the network’s decision to voice support for three news outlets the president banned from the White House last week.

In a string of social media posts, Navarro, a frequent critic of the cable news channel, defended the president’s move to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House and blasted Fox for a statement it issued along with ABC, NBC and CBS pushing back on Trump’s decision.

“FOX may call that solidarity. I see a network using its position to settle a score with a President it has never liked,” the Trump aide wrote. “And FOX can’t pretend it was simply following the crowd.”

The Rupert Murdoch-owned network, “wore our jersey and played for the other team,” Navarro continued.

“I’m not surprised. Fox has kept me and other Trump officials off its air over our views on tariffs and border security,” he alleged. “Two can play. Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, White House officials and surrogates should stay off Fox News and Fox Business. The only booking Fox should make is a primetime apology to President Trump and the MAGA audience it has spent years courting.”

A Fox News official is currently the chair of the TV pool covering the president, a rotating position between major networks organizing coverage of the president’s daily activities and movements.

The pool on Monday announced it would not cover the president in response to the ban, which the three outlets sued over on Monday on First Amendment grounds.

Lawyers for the Department of Justice argue the three outlets endangered national security with their reporting and the president was justified in targeting them for covering him, they say, unfairly.

Fox employs a number of top hosts and analysts who are vocally supportive of the president, and his cabinet is filled with more than a dozen officials who worked for the cable channel at one point or another.

Members of Trump’s administration appear on Fox on a daily basis to break news and promote the president and his policies.

Navarro, who served time in jail for contempt of Congress, has a history of criticizing Fox News, most recently over the network’s decision to part ways with former host Maria Bartiromo, a Trump supporter.