The former president of Fox News has criticized Donald Trump Jr. online, calling him a “low IQ oaf.”
As well as heading the conservative news channel, Joe Peyronnin was the executive vice president and founder of Telemundo News and is a former senior executive and producer at CBS News. Now the 76-year-old often shares his political thoughts on X, formerly Twitter.
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Peyronnin reshared a post from Ron Filipkowski—a vocal Trump critic and editor-in-chief at the independent news network MeidasTouch—that featured a video of former President Donald Trump’s son arguing that President Joe Biden’s administration treats Catholics as “domestic terrorists.” At the time of writing, Filipkowski’s post had more than 2 million views. Newsweek emailed Peyronnin and Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, for comment Thursday.
“Biden’s DOJ [Department of Justice] treated Catholics like terrorists. If you were a practicing catholic you were a domestic terrorist. If you bought a bible, you were marked by your banks and that information was given to said FBI and DOJ. They think churchgoing patriots are terrorists,” Trump Jr. said in the clip, which was a snippet from his “Triggered” video podcast.
When Peyronnin reshared the post, he added: “Donald Junior is a pathetic, low IQ oaf, who spews ridiculous lies to please daddy.”
Filipkowski then shared a screenshot of Peyronnin’s tweet, which ignited a conversation in the comments.
Some people hoped that public opinion of the Trump family was changing. “Is the tide actually turning ? Junior is painful at best and ridiculous worst,” one person commented.
“DJT JR is off the deep end. Nobody not even MAGA believe his ridiculous lies or his debunked Conspiracy Theories,” posted another.
Others criticized Peyronnin for not speaking out when he was President of Fox News. It must be noted that he was president only from 1995 to 1996.
“All these Republicans are so brave – once they’re ‘former.'” one X user posted.
“Damn, i love all these ‘formers’ so much, they’re so sharp, so righteous, too bad they don’t matter now. If only they were so sharp when they were in position of power to be actually able to project some influence to really change things,” wrote another.
A third added: “Unfortunately, like Republican politicians, he only deigns to tell the truth about any Trump, once he’s no longer in a position of power. Would have been nice to hear that from Fox when he was.”
While some were critical of the former Fox News president, others praised Peyronnin’s post.
“Amazing someone from fox telling the truth,” one person wrote, while another posted: “Could not have said it better myself.”
Trump Jr. isn’t the only one who has peddled these ideas, as Donald Trump has accused President Biden of similar tactics.
“Under Crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before. Catholics in particular are being targeted and evangelicals are surely on the watchlist as well,” Trump said in a video he posted to his social-media platform Truth Social in December.
There is no evidence to support either Trump Jr. or Trump’s claims, which have been seen as a way for the latter to galvanize support among Christians across the country.
During the 2016 and 2020 elections, Trump received crucial support from white Evangelical Christians. He secured a formidable alliance with them, who gravitated toward him for his stance on religious freedom and abortion.
However, in March, a Fox News poll found Trump slightly losing support from white evangelicals to President Joe Biden. The poll found 28 percent of such voters siding with Biden in the 2024 presidential race, up from 23 percent in October.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.