Fox News’ Dana Perino has blasted the Trump administration for being too preoccupied with media coverage surrounding the war in Iran.
Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of The Five, Perino, a former White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, said Donald Trump’s team is getting “too hung up” on press negativity when it should be focused on other messaging surrounding the Middle East conflict.
“I consume a lot of media, and I know there are some bad actors in the media. But overall, I have to say, I feel like there’s a ton of coverage. I don’t think it’s all negative across the board,” Perino said. “Some of it, yes, like [asking] ‘When is it going to be over?’”
“[Secretary of State] Marco Rubio has been very good. General [Dan] Caine, very good, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth—they’re doing regular briefings. Now [White House press secretary] Karoline Leavitt is out there. CENTCOM’s briefings have been amazing,” Perino added.
“If you’re in the administration and you’re getting really hung up on what you think the ‘enemy in the mainstream media’ is saying about you, you’re focusing way too narrowly. I don’t think the coverage of it is that bad at all.”
Perino’s remarks come as Hegseth complained that media reports about the U.S. servicemembers who have already been killed under “Operation Epic Fury” are only meant to make Trump “look bad.”
“We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news again,” Hegseth said.
“I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality.”
Hegseth’s comments were raised later Wednesday during Leavitt’s first briefing with reporters since the U.S. launched its attacks against Iran.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked whether the administration would prefer that the press not cover the deaths of six U.S. servicemembers in a war that Trump has struggled to justify or give any real timeline for.
“No, it’s the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country should accurately report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room,” Leavitt said.
Collins reiterated that Hegseth was “complaining” that it was front-page news that six U.S. troops had already been killed in the war.
“That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan, and that’s not what the secretary meant, and you know it,” Leavitt said. “You know you are being disingenuous. We’ve never had a secretary of defense who cares more.”
Collins then read out Hegseth’s exact remarks about the press wanting to make the president “look bad,” to which an irate Leavitt responded: “The press does want to make the president look bad—that’s a fact—especially you, and especially CNN.”
