Newly uncovered emails between Fox News and President Donald Trump’s Treasury Department reveal a cozy relationship between the conservative news network and the Trump administration.
The Hollywood Reporter got ahold of the emails on Thursday, which mostly included the Treasury’s correspondences with Fox, but also at least one with the far-right media organization Breitbart.
Many of the exchanges were to and from former Fox contributor Tony Sayegh, who served as the Treasury’s assistant secretary for public affairs until May.
In the emails, a Fox Business Network reporter corresponded with Sayegh to offer his thoughts the Trump administration’s sought-after tax cuts in 2017.
“Take the BIG TAX CUTS NOW…a long-term deal with small cuts is useless,” Fox Business Network host David Asman wrote to Sayegh on April 25, 2017. “NOTHING IS PERMANENT IN WASHINGTON. Big tax cuts now give the economy the push it needs.”
The Treasury staffer responded by thanking Asman for “these thoughts,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Fox Business host told Sayegh several days later that a large portion of one of the network’s programs would be dedicated to discussing Trump’s tax proposals, to which Sayegh responded, “You’re the man.”
Breitbart economics editor John Carney reached out to Sayegh on August 29 that same year asking for “a few good details” on the tax policies “to counter stuff MSM is already churning out to attack POTUS.”
“Will see what we can do,” he replied.
The cozy exchanges recall similarly friendly contacts between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Fox host Sean Hannity, during which Manafort thanked Hannity for his flattering coverage of Manafort’s criminal case.
Fox News representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Read more about the Treasury’s correspondences with Fox here.
