Snapshot · The MeidasTouch Podcast
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.
Where this was said
At 16:24 · 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.
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