Every Major Network Except Fox News Refused to Show Key Visuals from President Trump’s Prime-Time Economic Address

During President Donald Trump’s latest prime-time address on the economy, every major television network except Fox News declined to air the White House–prepared graphics designed to accompany the president’s remarks—a decision that once again highlighted the entrenched media resistance against presenting his economic case directly to the American people.

CNN’s Brian Stelter revealed the behind-the-scenes pressure campaign, reporting, “Trump’s communications team shared a set of slides with the major TV networks ahead of time and encouraged the networks to show them on screen, according to three news executives who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
Despite receiving the material in advance, the dominant broadcast networks—ABC, NBC, and CBS—refused to display the graphics. CNN joined them. Their justification? As Stelter explained, “None of the big three broadcast networks [ABC, NBC, CBS] opted to go with the slideshow. CNN did not show the slides either. One of the reasons: The graphs did not come with clear sourcing information, the sources said.”

Only Fox News gave viewers a fuller look at the administration’s visual evidence, clearly labeling the graphics as “White House graphic.” Host Sean Hannity even went further, sharing additional charts during his post-speech analysis.

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council under President Trump, called out the networks during an appearance on MS Now’s Morning Joe. He emphasized the administration’s intention to provide clarity rather than commentary. “The president, in order to make sure that everyone understood the facts and the facts were documented, spent a lot of time with us, with our team, preparing slides that showed the data for what he was talking about in the speech, and in some networks, while he was speaking they showed the slides, and on some networks they didn’t,” he said.

Hassett admitted he expected universal transparency. “I was expecting, when I was just flipping around, to see the slides everywhere,” he added.

The White House ensured the public could still access the evidence by embedding the charts directly into the YouTube version of President Trump’s address.

At the top of his remarks, the president went straight to the heart of the matter: the economic catastrophe he inherited and the rapid reversal underway. “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans …

“We’re bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin. The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before. I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast. Let’s look at the facts. Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22 percent, and in many states, 30 percent or more,” Trump spelled out.

The president continued listing the real-world consequences of Biden-era inflation—and the turnaround happening under his watch. “Gasoline rose 30 to 50 percent. Hotel rates rose 37 percent. Airfares rose 31 percent. Now, under our leadership, they’re all coming down, and coming down fast. Democrat politicians also sent the cost of groceries soaring, but we are solving that, too. The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33 percent compared to the [price during Biden’s administration] last year. The price of eggs is down 82 percent since March, and everything else is falling rapidly, and it’s not done yet. But boy, are we making progress. Nobody can believe what’s going on,” he argued.

New federal data backed up the president’s claims. The Consumer Price Index registered at 2.7 percent year-over-year in November—lower than economists expected and down from September’s 3 percent rate. October data had not been released due to the government shutdown.

The decision by most networks to block the administration’s supporting visuals also stood in stark contrast to historical precedent. The late President Ronald Reagan—celebrated as “the Great Communicator”—frequently used flip charts during his own televised economic addresses, recognizing that Americans deserved not just rhetoric, but evidence.

Reagan, who studied economics as an undergraduate, understood the power of clear, transparent data. President Trump leaned on that same tradition—only to have most of the modern media refuse to show viewers the full story.