Fox News staffers ‘feel trapped in Trump’s cult’ — and even Hannity fears the president is ‘crazy’: report
Brad Reed
An explosive new report published in Vanity Fair claims that many staffers at Fox News feel they’re “trapped” in a “cult” surrounding President Donald Trump — and even Fox host Sean Hannity worries about the president’s mental state.
The report, which was written by CNN’s Brian Stelter, documents how Trump frequently talks with Hannity, who serves as an informal adviser and political strategist.
However, Trump’s erratic behavior has proven at times too taxing for Hannity, who has been one of the president’s most reliable defenders for the past four years.
“Hannity would tell you, off-off-off the record, that Trump is a batsh*t crazy person,” one person described as a Hannity associate tells Stelter.
“Hannity has said to me more than once, ‘he’s crazy,'” said a source described as a Hannity friend.
Many Fox News staffers similarly tell Stelter that they’ve become terrified at the way that the station’s audience has become nothing more than a personality cult for the president.
“I feel like Fox is being held hostage by its audience,” a veteran staffer told Stelter.
“The audience has been RADICALIZED,” a longtime commentator on the station told Stelter after he had been inundated with angry tweets from Trump supporters because he made critical remarks about the president on Fox News.
“Any break from Trump was penalized,” writes Stelter, describing the atmosphere of fear that was present at the station. “Nuanced debates about the role of government and taxation and immigration were distilled to a single question: Were you with Trump or against him?”
