With the president closely monitoring Fox News to see how the right-wing network is covering his military campaign against Iran, host Emily Compagno on Monday gushed over the “beautiful B-2 bombers” and the “constellation of perfection” required to pull off Trump’s “Operation Midnight Hammer.”
“Superheroes of the century!” Compagno breathlessly declared during Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News midday panel show Outnumbered.
Saturday’s airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities came after Donald Trump ran a multi-day deception to make it appear he was backing away from his threat to join Israel’s war with Iran. This included the president lunching with Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who has been one of the most outspoken MAGA critics of a bombing campaign, fueling speculation that the president may back down.
In the end, despite Trump saying he would decide whether or not to strike Iran “within the next two weeks,” a fleet of B-2 stealth bombers – along with a second group of decoy bombers sent over the Pacific – took off from Missouri and dropped over a dozen bunker-busting bombs on the Iranian nuclear sites before returning back to the United States.
As has been the case since Israel launched its preemptive bombing campaign over claims that Tehran is just weeks away from developing a nuclear bomb, an assertion Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made for decades, Fox News has acted as chief cheerleader for military aggression and disinformation trafficker following the American airstrikes.
“Now tonight, Iran's nuclear ambitions, they are officially dead. It appears the United States just completely obliterated Iran's top secret Fordo nuclear facility,” Fox News host and Trump confidant Sean Hannity exclaimed on Saturday evening, adding that he had spoken personally to the president.
“This mission was never going to fail under this commander in chief,” Mark Levin, the Fox News host who privately urged Trump to give Israel the green light to attack Iran, added. “This is historic, he is historic, the United States military is historic.”
Meanwhile, despite Trump and his top acolytes at Fox proclaiming “Operation Midnight Hammer” an unparalleled success that “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, senior American and international officials have acknowledged that they do not know the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
Additionally, some of the president’s team have expressed concern about how one-sided and hawkish Fox News’ coverage has been as hostilities escalate in the Middle East, noting that Trump has grown increasingly angry with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s opposition to American involvement in Israel’s military campaign.
“The president was closely monitoring Fox News, which was airing wall-to-wall praise of Israel’s military operation and featuring guests urging Mr. Trump to get more involved,” the New York Times reported. “Several Trump advisers lamented the fact that Mr. Carlson was no longer on Fox, which meant that Mr. Trump was not hearing much of the other side of the debate.”
While some Fox News hosts have resorted to taking none-too-veiled swipes at Carlson, others have focused their energy on fawning over the American bombing raid – apparently in hopes of pleasing the network’s most prominent viewer.
During Monday’s broadcast of Outnumbered, the panelists took turns cheering on the president and the American military for the “extraordinary” airstrikes, claiming Trump has “proven that he is afraid of nothing and is willing to protect America over anything else.”
Kayleigh McEnany, the former Trump spokesperson turned Fox News host, was absolutely awestruck over the B-2 mission itself, noting that the planes refueled multiple times in the air while flying halfway across the world. “This shows how extraordinary the US armed forces are. How elite, how incredible they are in every sense of the word,” she exclaimed before turning to Compagno.
“I think it can never be overstated the intensity and the elite caliber of the collaboration and the constellation of perfection required to pull this operation off,” Compagno proclaimed before ramping up the hyperbole even more.
“Oftentimes, when we see a main character who makes it look effortless, we think they are operating solo,” she effusively stated.
“And the reality here is the beautiful B-2 bombers had a support squad, the superheroes of the century. We heard about the third- and fourth-generation fighter jets. Those are the F-22s, the F-35s.”
She went on to lavish praise on the submarines that launched the Tomahawk missiles as part of the mission, as well as other military hardware, before noting that the Wall Street Journal editorial board applauded the president for “meeting the moment” with the strikes.
While Fox News’ hosts and commentators shower the president with praise for striking Iran, early polls indicate that Americans overwhelmingly do not want war with Iran. Additionally, a larger majority of the American public feels the bombing campaign will lead to a broader war with Iran, which they feel will make the United States less safe.
