Video Compilation Shows 30 Times Trump Repeated 'Fox & Friends' Talking Points in 2018

A video compiled by news monitor Media Matters shows 30 times President Donald Trump repeated talking points from Fox & Friends in 2018, illuminating the close connection between the president and the morning show.

The video, created by Media Matters Senior Fellow Matt Gertz, shows Trump tweeting comments about the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Clinton Foundation, the income of the country's middle class and media coverage, among other topics.

The tweets are posted shortly after similar statements are made on Fox & Friends.

In some tweets, the president notes he is directly quoting the show or tags specific commentators. In others, he repeats exact language used on the program but does not state its source.

The video builds on Gertz's previous work tracking the relationship between Fox News and Trump's Twitter posts.

"After comparing the president’s tweets with Fox's coverage every day since October, I can tell you that the Fox-Trump feedback loop is happening far more often than you think," Gertz wrote in a Politico piece in January. "There is no strategy to Trump’s Twitter feed; he is not trying to distract the media. He is being distracted. He darts with quark-like speed from topic to topic in his tweets because that’s how cable news works."

Fox News hosts and commentators on other programs have also influenced the president.

While speaking on the network, media figures directly address statements to Trump. Jesse Watters, Steve Doocy and Andrew Napolitano have all addressed statements directly to the president, Newsweek reported.

In November 2017, The Washington Post reported that Trump had posted online about Fox & Friends 88 times. The Post analyzed Trump's tweets and determined that he had likely watched the network 37 percent of the days since taking office, excluding time when he was traveling abroad.

Fox News hosts recently appeared to influence the president's stance on funding for the proposed border wall.

Fox News hosts blasted Trump last week after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he would withdraw his demand for $5 billion in border wall funding.

The president later altered his decision, saying that "any measure that funds the government must include border security," The Washington Post reported.

Other conservative commentators, like Ann Coulter, have also appeared to exhibit significant influence over the president.

After Trump's change in position on border wall funding, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker criticized the sway that prominent conservative pundits can exert on Trump.

"We have two talk-radio show hosts who basically influenced the president, and we’re in a shutdown mode. It’s just—that’s tyranny, isn’t it?" he said to reporters last week, according to The Hill.

"I mean, this is a juvenile place we find ourselves. The reason we’re here is that we have a couple talk-radio hosts that get the president spun up."