Quote · The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Turns on Trump After Iran Reversal
Where this was said
Mark Thiessen Fabricates Trump's Family History
At 16:46 · chapter starts 16:16
In what Meiselas calls one of the weirder moments of Fox's recent coverage, Mark Thiessen launches into an immigration riff that invents a fictional backstory for Trump's father. According to Thiessen, Fred Trump came to America during the Alaska Gold Rush and married a Scottish maid — a story apparently designed to make Trump a symbol of legal immigration and the American Dream. Meiselas can barely contain himself: Fred Trump was born in the Bronx. He wasn't an immigrant. The factual error goes uncorrected on air. Meiselas mocks it as 'fascist Spider-Man comic book cosplay' — an attempt to mythologize Trump's origins in a way that bears no relationship to reality. The segment illustrates a pattern Meiselas returns to throughout the episode: Fox News is not just cheerleading for war, it's actively manufacturing a fictional version of Trump's identity and legacy.
Mark Thiessen told Fox News viewers that Trump is a first-generation American whose father came to the US during the Alaska Gold Rush. Ben Meiselas immediately corrected the record: Fred Trump was born in the Bronx, New York.
Fox News panelist Mark Thiessen falsely claimed Trump's father came to the US during the Alaskan Gold Rush, when in fact Fred Trump was born in the Bronx.
Fox News hosts called Trump's White House Correspondents' Dinner speech a triumph. Ben Meiselas countered that it was the worst speech in world history — and that many of the bad jokes were plagiarized to boot.
