Fox News' dangerous role in Iran

An Iranian woman at Valiasr Square in Tehran on June 15, 2026. Atta Kenare/AFP

On Monday, Trump announced beginning concepts of a plan to discuss an outline of understanding on how to end to the war in Iran. It was Trump’s 39^th such announcement since he started the war.

Israeli leaders, ostensible partners in Trump’s war, are increasingly convinced that Trump’s MOU with Iran makes Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal look perfect in comparison, after Trump tore that deal up, calling it “a deal at the highest level of incompetence” and “the worst deal ever negotiated.” Obama’s 2015 deal featured highly detailed, multi-decade uranium enrichment caps and verification protocols, while the core mechanisms of Trump’s MOU remain unseen, unfinalized and deferred for 60-days.Although Trump’s MOU may pause the fighting he started, it has not established any permanent, legally binding nuclear dismantlement or the long-term inspection protocols Trump initially demanded, and it includes a plan to hand Iran up to $300 billion in taxpayer money. The biggest achievement will be the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which, of course, is simply a return to the prewar status quo.

Yesterday Fox News, after promoting Trump’s attacks on the 2015 Iran deal, said Trump “deserves credit for bringing this conflict to this point.”

Fox News manipulated Trump into Iran

Fox may be reluctant to criticize an end to a costly war it encouraged. Fox News and its hawkish hosts played an aggressive role in pushing Trump toward greater military force in Iran — a troubling dynamic critics call a “doom loop” between the White House and the network, a self-reinforcing feedback cycle where the administration’s grievances and policies prioritize media spectacle over conventional governance, which in turn shapes presidential policy and messaging.

As early as June 2025, Fox talking heads pushed for war with Iran, encouraging Trump into open conflict. Mark Levin reportedly helped push the June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities by convincing Trump over lunch that the country was just days away from getting a nuclear weapon. When a fragile ceasefire was declared in April 2026, rather than celebrating, many Fox voices including senior security analyst Jack Keane and host Brian Kilmeade demanded it be broken. These voices agitated for the Trump administration and Israel to resume aggressive bombing campaigns rather than continue diplomatic negotiations, demanding Trump restart the war and, in their words, “finish the job.” Host Ainsley Earhardt even told Trump that Americans were supportive of escalating aggression in Iran, which was not true.

Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, and Jesse Watters all floated the idea of flooding Iran with small arms to provoke an uprising. Kilmeade, one of the network’s most prominent hawks and co-host of Fox & Friends, proposed relentless U.S. strikes against Iranian targets to “open up the strait,” “grab the uranium,” and “target bad actors,” an apparent embrace of assassination. Other Fox News hosts also pushed Trump to seek regime change in Iran, hosting retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who called for “putting boots on the ground” and for the U.S. to seize Iranian territory.

This was not commentary or news, it was Fox television personalities directly shaping foreign policy at the highest level.

The doom loop endangers the nation

What makes this dynamic especially fraught is the structural relationship between Fox and the Trump administration. Trump has appointed more than two dozen former Fox News hosts into administration positions, blurring the line between media and government in an unprecedented way. When Trump calls into Fox & Friends, he is not just doing an interview — he is engaging a network with an inherent interest in promoting conflict and spectacle. Fox hosts also reward Trump with hyperbolic praise: when Trump ordered military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Sean Hannity said the strikes would “go down in history as one of the greatest military victories,” while other hosts claimed Trump deserved “six Nobel Peace Prizes” and a spot on Mount Rushmore. Trump went on to demand—and expect— both honors.

Fox’s lockstep promotion of Trump’s war reflects the network’s calculated plan to keep MAGA enraged and engaged. War framed as a righteous confrontation with a Judeo-Christian undertones is good television. It generates ratings, emotional investment, and brand loyalty. It is what happens when the line between journalism and political advocacy dissolves.

A network that functions as an echo chamber for a sitting president, with hosts who propose military strikes rather than analyze them, and treats war as a network ratings strategy, has abdicated its responsibility to the public and should be held to account. The feedback loop between Fox and the White House helped produce a war that cost American lives, roiled the global economy, and left our allies disgusted. Even if Trump’s MOU miraculously holds, analysts predict the global economy will take months and even years to recover. As the NYT Editorial Board assessed the MOU, “Mr. Trump made a terrible mistake starting this war... The United States is emerging weaker — militarily, diplomatically and economically — and will pay strategic costs for years to come.”

What will Fox News pay? Fox has inflicted lasting damage on our democracy by selling Trump propaganda as news, directly profiting from falsehoods in a classic case of consumer fraud. Fox paid nearly $1 billion for lying about the 2020 election. One wonders what they’ll pay the families of 13 soldiers who died for nothing other than their ratings.

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1^st and 14^th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.