In President Donald Trump’s first month back in the White House, Fox News broadcasted more coverage of his anti-transgender executive orders than both MSNBC and CNN, according to a report by Media Matters for America — allowing the right-wing network to shape public discourse on trans people at a critical time for transgender rights.
“The shocking lack of coverage by more liberal media has allowed Fox News to push increasingly harmful narratives about transgender people,” LGBTQ legislative researcher Allison Chapman told Truthout.
In his first 31 days back in office, Trump signed a slew of anti-trans executive orders undermining the rights and protections of transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people. These policies sought to eradicate legal recognition of transgender identities, reinstate a ban on transgender people in the military, cut federal funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care to trans people under the age of 19, withhold federal funds from schools that allow trans women to compete in women’s sports, and reverse diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Trump’s anti-trans executive orders were covered by CNN, MSNBC and Fox News for a total of nearly nine hours during the first month of his second term, including 156 segments and 187 mentions or promotions, according to the report. Fox News alone accounted for nearly half of this coverage, broadcasting four hours and eight minutes — almost the combined total of coverage by CNN and MSNBC.
Media Matters LGBTQ Program Director Ari Drennen told The Independent that “these discriminatory policies from the Trump administration affect the lives and livelihoods of people across the United States” and emphasized that mainstream media networks “have an obligation to make sure that their viewers are aware that these are not just theoretical debates.”
This coverage gap is part of a larger trend of the far right dominating public discourse on trans policies. For example, in 2024, the Republican Party spent nearly $215 million on anti-trans ads, making anti-trans policies one of the bedrocks of their election campaigns. Instead of fighting back against the far right’s anti-trans push, Democrats and liberal media appear to be acquiescing — a trend that LGBTQ advocates say is compounded by the stark imbalance in coverage on anti-trans policies between Fox News and liberal-leaning networks.
“Without transgender people at the center of discourse, cisgender people are unable to see transgender rights as anything other than a political debate, thus removing our humanity from the equation,” Chapman said. “This is incredibly harmful to the fight for transgender liberation and allows right-wing media to continually gain traction while transgender people are left fearing for their lives.”
According to the Media Matters report, Fox News opinion shows played a particularly disproportionate role in covering Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, providing 28 percent of the total coverage provided by cable news networks. The gap was even greater when it came to coverage of Trump’s transgender sports ban, with Fox News opinion programs making up 35 percent of all cable news coverage.
LGBTQ advocates say that by repeatedly framing Trump’s anti-trans measures, Fox News is shifting the Overton window — the collection of ideas and policies deemed acceptable by public society — further to the right. “Transgender rights are being used as a pawn to destroy our democracy and clearly liberal media is unwilling to take a stand against it,” Chapman told Truthout.
Another primary concern raised in the report is the underrepresentation of transgender and nonbinary voices in cable news reporting on such policies. Transgender and nonbinary guests appeared in only 14 percent of guest segments covering Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, according to the report.
“Without transgender people included in their coverage, liberal media is complicit in the hostile takeover of the federal government and neutralizing their own power to stop it,” Chapman said. “Our fate is being left in the hands of those who do not understand our struggles and we are being left behind without the tools needed to shift the hearts and minds of the American people.”
Unlike mainstream media, we’re not capitulating to Trump.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.