Some of Fox News’s biggest-name hosts have set aside their red-baiting to hang out at the White House with the world’s most powerful communist dictator.
China’s Xi Jinping is in America at the invitation of President Donald Trump, who staged a lavish state dinner at taxpayers’ expense on Thursday evening.
Tech billionaires including SpaceX’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg packed the VIP guest list.
Also invited were Fox News stars Jesse Watters, Laura Ingraham, and Bret Baier, despite the president’s favorite network repeatedly parroting his anti-communist rhetoric ahead of the midterm elections.
In particular, Watters and Ingraham have been among Fox’s most virulently commie-bashing hosts. But the pair were so excited to eat sea bass with the Chinese Communist Party boss in the White House East Room that they even ditched hosting their Thursday evening shows.
“Sorry I’m not on the show tonight, I had to stop by and see President Xi of China, I’m invited to a state dinner, I have to go,” Ingraham told her Instagram followers in a video showing off her dress.
Trump has repeatedly—and inaccurately—attacked leading progressive Democrats, including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, as “communists” as he tries to whip up his base before the midterms.
During a softball interview with Trump this month, Ingraham asked the president why Republicans need to show up to vote on Nov. 3.
“Communism,” Trump said. The 80-year-old added, “They are trying to destroy our country... they’ve skipped socialism, these people are sick...”
Both Ingraham and Watters have continued to parrot Trump’s statements about a communist threat coming from democratic socialists.
“You think NYC’s turn to socialism and communism is just a `New York’ thing?” Ingraham asked ina X post in June. “It’s not. Uncontrolled immigration, green-lit since the 80s by the Uniparty, is remaking every American community. We imported anti-Americanism, cultivated it in schools. Now comes the poisonous crop.”
The same day, Watters dialed up the rhetoric on The Five, talking about far-left Democrats in New York and conflating them with communists.
“You’re coming for us,” Watters said. “You’re coming for our money, you’re coming for our people. You’re coming for our way of life. It’s not socialism, guys. This is communism. You can’t... reason with these guys. You have to crush them. And we will.”
Speaking about Mamdani’s popularity, Watters added, “This guy is trouble. This guy is a Trojan horse, and communism is gonna take over the Democratic Party, and then we’re gonna have to beat it, because you can’t do anything else besides beat it to a pulp.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.
