In what can only be described as a full-scale, on-air implosion, the network long known as “state regime media” is visibly collapsing under the weight of its own propaganda. As Donald Trump’s approval numbers reportedly plummet to historic lows—below 37 percent—and as the nation simultaneously witnesses a cratering economy and the largest peaceful protests in its history, Fox News has descended into a bizarre, chaotic scramble to invent a reality that simply does not exist.
The network’s propagandists, seemingly in a state of panic, spent their recent broadcasts not reporting on these crises, but attempting to distract, defame, and delude their audience with a series of increasingly unhinged narratives. From floating absurd geopolitical fantasies to platforming commuted criminals, the facade has cracked, revealing a machine in total disarray.
The desperation was palpable on Sean Hannity’s program, a long-time safe space for the MAGA elite. Faced with the undeniable reality of Trump’s “total capitulation” to Russia and a public in open revolt, Hannity and his guest, Senator Lindsey Graham, pivoted to a distraction so absurd it bordered on self-parody: the idea of turning Venezuela into the 51st state.
Hannity, referencing a prior chat, enthusiastically pushed the idea, suggesting that if the Venezuelan opposition leader “chose, maybe the 51st state. I don’t know. Sounds good to me.” The moment was a stunning example of a network so devoid of positive news that it has resorted to manufacturing fantastical imperialist scenarios, a desperate “look over there!” to distract from the administration’s failures at home and abroad.
But the cracks in the fortress are becoming too large to patch. The network’s famously controlled environment was shattered when a guest, congressional candidate Dan Co, brought the unspinable truth directly to their audience. When asked about the Democratic party, Co immediately pivoted to the “No Kings” protests, which he described as a unified movement of “Democrats, Republicans, and independents” protesting a president “who is trying to silence us.”
He then delivered the kill shot, referencing an AI-generated video Trump himself had posted. “The analogy was apt when the president uploaded a video of himself… literally defecating on people exercising their right to free speech,” Co stated. The Fox host was left visibly stunned, stuttering, “I don’t know what to do.” That single moment of dead air was perhaps the most honest broadcast Fox has had in years—a flash of an alternate reality, the real one, piercing their propaganda bubble and leaving them speechless.
Unable to confront the present, Hannity promptly retreated to rehabilitating the past. In a move that perfectly encapsulates the MAGA movement’s moral compass, he brought on George Santos, the disgraced serial fraudster newly commuted by Donald Trump. Santos, who stole from Republican donors to fund a life of luxury, was welcomed back as a political darling. In a surreal, almost cult-like exchange, Santos began his redemption tour by personally apologizing to Hannity, not for his crimes, but as a “former constituent.” “I lived in Oyster Bay,” Santos said, “I owe you an apology, Sean.” It was a bizarre spectacle of cronyism, a public absolution for a commuted criminal, signaling that in Trump’s world, loyalty is the only virtue.
While Fox’s hosts were busy forgiving their allies, its other guests were busy threatening America’s. MAGA Republican Senator Marino appeared on the network to launch a vitriolic attack on the sitting president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. His crime? He accurately “called out Donald Trump for engaging in war crimes by blowing up fishing ships in the Caribbean and killing innocent Colombian fishermen.”
For this act of truth-telling, Senator Marino labeled the democratically elected leader “moronic” and accused him of being installed by “drug cartels.” He then issued a chilling threat: “We’re going to turbocharge that investigation. In the meantime, we’re going to put him and his extended family and enablers on the OFAC list.” This is the new MAGA foreign policy: a thuggish, mafia-style shakedown of any world leader who dares to criticize Donald Trump, broadcast live as “news.”
This “fake macho” energy was also on full display from Senator Lindsey Graham. The same man who has become a notorious “Putin bootlicker” and quietly buried his own proposals to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, suddenly found his courage when discussing Venezuela. “He’s a narco-terrorist drug dealer,” Graham postured, “and Trump is going to set the conditions to take him down.” This tough talk, as the video’s narrator notes, is pure political theater, a pathetic attempt to sound strong on a minor target after “capitulating” to Trump’s true master in the Kremlin.
But the network’s most venomous attacks were reserved not for foreign leaders, but for the American people. As millions gathered for the “No Kings” protests, Fox’s hosts, led by MAGA Mike Johnson, launched a coordinated slander campaign. Johnson called the historic, peaceful demonstration a “Hate America rally,” claiming it was co-sponsored by “the Communist Party USA” and “Soros-funded.” He went on a tirade, accusing the millions of American citizens of being against “capitalism,” “individual freedom,” and “human dignity.”
This narrative, however, publicly humiliated one of Fox’s own. On “The Five,” host Jesse Waters was forced to lament that the “who’s who of people with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)” at the protests included a very special guest: “Even my mom was there.” In one sentence, Waters inadvertently destroyed his own network’s propaganda. The protesters weren’t a radical fringe; they were his own mother, a woman who, as the narrator points out, “warned him specifically about this behavior about spreading conspiracies for money.”
As always, the lone voice of reason in the asylum was Jessica Tarlov. During a debate with Greg Gutfeld over Gavin Newsom, Tarlov calmly deployed the one weapon MAGA cannot tolerate: facts. She pointed out that under Newsom, California’s economy “did go from… the sixth biggest in the world… and now it’s the fourth biggest, which does seem like a change in the positive direction.” Her “wonky,” stat-based defense of reality left the sneering Gutfeld with no response, highlighting the intellectual vacuum that defines the rest of the network.
The collapse was completed by Senator Joni Ernst, who delivered a “pathetic” performance. After blaming George Soros for protest signs, she had the audacity to praise Trump as a “president of peace” for a “fragile ceasefire” in the Middle East—a “fraudulent” truce that has already seen dozens of Palestinians killed as Israel bombs Lebanon.
This is the state of “state regime media.” It is a network in freefall, an institution so committed to its propaganda that it has lost all touch with reality. It defends the indefensible, platforms the criminal, attacks the innocent, and slanders the American people as “communists” while their own mothers march in the streets. This is not a news network. It is a desperate, collapsing machine, and its on-air implosion is clear for all to see.