President-elect Donald Trump was heralded by Fox and its stars at the cable network’s Patriots Awards ceremony on Thursday night, receiving cheers and chants of “USA!” as he took the stage to accept an award for “Patriot of the Year.”
Hosted by Fox personality Sean Hannity in New York, who replaced Pete Hegseth after Trump nominated him for defense secretary, Trump arrived at Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards to a standing ovation and a serenade from Lee Greenwood, who sang his hit song “God Bless the USA.”
In his introduction, Hannity celebrated the president-elect by playing the Trump favorite, “Y.M.C.A.”, while inviting audience members to join in Trump’s signature dance. At another point, he donned an orange vest, alluding to a 2024 campaign moment where the then-Republican candidate arrived at a press conference in a garbage truck.
The president-elect began his acceptance speech at the sixth annual event by noting his affection for the network and its stars before praising Hannity. “How ‘bout Sean. Is Sean just great, you know? He’s a special guy, he’s been my friend for a long time, I probably shouldn’t say a friend, but he is really, a friend, he’s a friend to the country.”
As the camera panned to the crowd, another Fox personality, Jeanine Pirro, could be seen standing front row with a smile on her face. She later blew the president-elect a kiss when he made a brief mention of her in his speech.
Other stars including Jesse Watters, Laura Ingraham, Will Cain, Steve Doocy, Dana Perino, Brian Kilmeade, and Martha MacCallum made appearances throughout the night.
“You have incredible people at Fox... [there are] a couple I don’t like but that’s alright. I shouldn’t name them should I? I don’t think so,” Trump joked.
Trump continued by recognizing his win in this year’s election, which was—in his words—“too big to rig.”
He proceeded to expand upon his future plans for his second term, including his intent to secure the border and “get criminals out of the country.” Trump also briefly touched upon his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where the subject of his 25-percent tariff increase was raised.
Amidst loud applause, Trump claimed that we saw “more happen in the last two weeks than the last four years and we’re not even there yet,” seemingly celebrating his whirlwind of Cabinet picks and new proposals.
“We are gonna do things that have been really needed for a long time,” Trump continued, earning a standing ovation from a pool of Fox employees at the event. “We are gonna look at elections. We’ll wanna have paper ballots. On- day voting. Voter ID. And proof of citizenship.”
The star-studded Fox affair wrapped up with the president-elect promising to restore global trust in the nation.
The awards “honors and recognizes America’s patriots, including military veterans, first responders and other inspirational everyday heroes,” according to Fox.
