A Fox Business host has been slammed for literally dancing to celebrate President Donald Trump’s first 200 days in office—a segment opening that critics said was akin to North Korean state television.
The right-leaning network returned from commercial break Thursday afternoon to show host Charles Payne dancing to Kool & The Gang’s 1980 hit “Celebration.”
The gone-groovy financial expert quickly went to fawning over the president and his economic decisions, all while a live stock ticker displayed the S&P 500 declining.
“Celebration,” he said, referring to the song’s name. “Listen, it became an international anthem of positivity and joy. Well, 200 days into the second Trump administration, there is a lot to celebrate, and certainly a lot to be optimistic about.”
Payne, 62, pointed to Trump’s event in the Oval Office with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who gifted the president a tacky plaque with a 24-karat gold base, as one of many MAGA wins this term. The tech executive announced an additional $100 billion in new U.S. investment on Wednesday—a move that many believe is to keep Trump from imposing tariffs that will make its foreign manufacturing more expensive.
The Fox host made no mention of the last three job reports, which were so far below expectations that Trump fired the statistician who calculated the figures. However, Payne did note the country’s second-quarter GDP number was “strong” and claimed that tariffs have been a net positive for middle America. He did not mention the S&P Index’s performance which was on screen; it closed the day at 6,340, down 5 points.
Social media critics were quick to call out Payne for his selective choice of stats.
“State TV energy so strong it’s making Pyongyang look subtle,” wrote one user, referring to the North Korean capital that the dictator Kim Jong Un calls home.
Another photoshopped a MAGA to read, “Make America North Korea.”
North Korea has no independent news agencies. The Trump administration has been mockingly compared to the adversary over the overly glowing news coverage it often receives from Fox News and other right of center outlets.
Trump’s economic and market record is at the very least ambiguous.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the most widely followed index, opened on Jan. 21, the first trading day of his term in office at 43,153, and closed Thursday at 43,968.
The most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested that only 73,000 new jobs were created in July and severely downgraded its previous estimate of employment growth in May and June to less than a third of the pace jobs growth had been under President Joe Biden.
And while the economy has not gone into recession, which had been predicted by some critics of Trump’s tariffs, economic growth in the first three months of the year was -0.5%, while the second quarter figure of 3% was widely seen by analysts as being unlikely to be repeated.
