Trump wrongly associates New Orleans terrorist incident with migrants following inaccurate Fox News broadcast report.
Trump wrongly associates New Orleans terrorist incident with migrants following inaccurate Fox News broadcast report.
The bogus report disseminated by Fox, attributed to anonymous sources, perplexed the general populace – and apparently, President-elect Donald Trump as well. The false information persisted more than 24 hours later, serving as a warning about the news system as the new year commenced.
At 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, Fox announced that the New Orleans suspect's vehicle crossed the US border in Eagle Pass, Texas "two days ago." Certain segments on the right-wing channel suggested the suspect himself crossed the border, implying a foreigner's potential involvement in the lethal incident.
However, the New Orleans attacker was, in fact, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran. This information was not widely available when Fox broadcast the incorrect details.
approx. eight minutes following the initial Fox segment, Trump published a statement about "criminals coming in" from foreign countries. Although Trump did not directly reference Fox, he is known for his regular consumption of the cable network and had appointed a few of its personalities to his incoming cabinet.
Several of Trump's family members and allies also swiftly associated the attack with illegal immigration and cited Fox as their source.
"Biden's parting gift to America — migrant terrorists," Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X, sharing the Fox claim. "Shut the border down!!!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene exclaimed.
Fox attempted to rectify its erroneous report approximately one and a half hours later. The network clarified that the truck involved in the attack was actually in Eagle Pass nearly two months prior, not two days. Moreover, the vehicle was being rented out through Turo at the time, making the border detail irrelevant.
Regrettably, the mistake had already spread across social media. Fox continued to stream the incorrect information on its website. "Some Republicans continued to drum on about the border even after Fox News retracted its initial report," The Daily Beast's Josh Fiallo reported.
Ironically, Trump's original statement used the New Orleans attack to denounce the "Fake News Media" for underestimating the threat posed by illegal immigration. Had he waited a couple hours, he would have learned that the suspect was an American citizen.
A Fox spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment regarding the misreporting.
Strangely, during the afternoon broadcast on Fox, a reporter read Trump's quote about "criminals coming in" from other countries, then clarified that the New Orleans attacker did not enter from another country – without acknowledging that Fox might have been responsible for misleading Trump into issuing the statement in the first place.
Overnight, Trump continued to attack "open borders" on Truth Social. Following a related segment on "Fox & Friends" the next morning, Trump tweeted, "I said, many times during rallies and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so prevalent in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe. That time has come, even worse than ever imagined."
Ever since, Republican lawmakers on Fox have continued to discuss the southern border during segments about the New Orleans attack, despite the absence of a known link.
In the aftermath of the incident, conservative media outlets, including Fox, heavily focused on the border crossing of the suspect, fueling political debates about immigration. This led to several business figures and politicians using Fox's coverage as a basis for their anti-immigration rhetoric.
Furthermore, the media's role as a trusted source of information became questionable as the incorrect Fox report persisted, leading to misunderstandings and misguided responses from influential figures.