“I think there have been some brilliant American women in politics, but I don’t think Kamala Harris is one of them,” Liz Truss said in an interview on Fox News earlier this week.
The comments, which were met with derision on social media, marked the latest outing for the short-lived prime minister on the US channel as she attempts to carve out a new home after her 49 days in Downing Street.
It also forms part of a wider trend as ousted Tories from the Right of the party increasingly find themselves more aligned with Donald Trump’s politics than those of their colleagues at home.
Meanwhile, an influx of Britons offers a fresh opportunity for Fox – a longtime champion of Trump – as it grapples with its new position in the US media landscape.
As the Nov 5 election day looms and US politics remains febrile, industry observers expect this marriage of convenience to gather pace.
While Truss’s repositioning for an American audience has raised eyebrows, she is not the first to make the leap across the pond.
Steve Hilton, a former political adviser to David Cameron, is perhaps most well-known for such a transition. He hosted The Next Revolution, a weekly current affairs show on Fox News between 2017 and 2023.
Others may follow suit. Boris Johnson, who has yet to begin his job as a presenter on GB News, spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last week – albeit to a near-empty room.
Nigel Farage, who was hired by Fox as a political analyst in 2017 and has been a regular contributor to the channel, could also gain more air time, though he may struggle to carve out time as he juggles his GB News show with his new job as MP for Clacton.
For years, British writers such as Douglas Murray have been establishing a growing influence on Right-wing thinking in the US. In many ways, it seems only natural that politicians should follow suit.
For Truss in particular, whose book Ten Years to Save the West rails against the “liberal establishment” and who was at the RNC in Milwaukee alongside Trump, the US offers a natural ideological home.
“It’s no surprise that Liz Truss has cropped up, simply because if you look at the brand of what she was saying – low taxation, willingness to pump up debt – these are all themes that very much align with Trump … particularly the idea that the system is conspiring against those who want radical change,” says media analyst Ian Whittaker.
“It’s a Trumpian world view that’s really going to go down well with the audience. So from that standpoint, I can totally see where she would make an extremely good niche for herself in the US market.”
For politicians who feel their ideas have not been welcomed in Britain, American TV promises a receptive audience. And that is not to mention the large fees commanded in the States.
For Fox, it comes at an opportune time. The network, once so heavily reliant on Trump, is now facing up to a shift in the power dynamic ahead of a potential second term.
Rupert Murdoch is embroiled in a legal dispute with three of his children as he looks to hand over sole control to eldest son Lachlan, who is seen by many as a continuity candidate who will maintain the media empire’s Right-wing stance.
“[Lachlan] is a carbon copy of his father except that he doesn’t interfere,” says Alice Enders at Enders Analysis. “He’s not a kingmaker, he’s not like Rupert who actually saw himself as controlling the outcomes of elections.”
Fox is undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of Murdoch’s empire, raking in profits of more than $700m (£543m) in its latest quarter.
Ratings show the channel is outpacing cable rivals such as CNN and MSNBC, attracting an average audience of around 3.6m in primetime this month, according to figures from Nielsen.
Nevertheless, it comes at a challenging time for cable TV, which is grappling with the shift to streaming. Moreover, the so-called “Trump bump” that many media outlets enjoyed during Trump’s first presidency appears not to have materialised.
“I think first time round there was a novelty. The second time everyone is quite fatigued,” says a former journalist at CNN. “People in that period have switched off news. The war, the election, the chaos … people have just had it.”
At the same time, Trump supporters who were previously loyal to Fox now have more options to choose from. Rival conservative TV channel Newsmax, while attracting much lower average audiences than Fox, secured more than 3m viewers each evening during the RNC.
Trump’s own social media platform Truth Social, which launched in 2022, offers the former president a way of reaching his supporters directly. The influence of X, now owned by vocal Trump supporter Elon Musk, will also play a key role in the election.
As a result, there has been a notable shift in the relationship between Trump and Fox. Many media observers have cited Murdoch’s decision to jet to the RNC – a highly unusual move for the mogul – as a telling sign of the shifting power balance.
“There’s no doubt when you look at who has the greater influence now – it would be Trump over Fox,” says Whittaker. “So I think from a Fox perspective the question is therefore how do they change themselves?”
Adding to the pressure on Fox is an eye-watering $788m bill to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which accused the channel of knowingly broadcasting false claims that the company’s technology was used to rig the 2020 election of Joe Biden.
Fox is still facing a separate $2.7bn lawsuit brought by Smartmatic, another voting technology company.
Some of Fox’s most controversial hosts, including Tucker Carlson, have been ousted in the wake of the scandal. Still, analysts say the channel will have to tread carefully to avoid future crippling claims.
Enders says Fox needs a “bugaboo” to rail against, but warns the network has to be “really careful”. She adds: “I think we’re going to see a lot more care given about blanket assertions that the election is being undermined and stolen.”
A Fox News insider denied that the channel was being more cautious in its coverage and insisted the Dominion case was “in the rear-view mirror”.
Nevertheless, an influx of disenfranchised British politicians could deliver fresh new voices for Murdoch’s channel at a time when the tycoon is battling to retain his influence. And while Truss’s transition from discredited UK politician to US talking head may have ruffled feathers, it is unlikely to be the last.
“I think you will continue to see a stream of politicians going over,” says Whittaker. “But they’re going to be politicians of a certain type who have a certain worldview … It’s not going to be somebody in the mainstream.”
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
