Even Fox News Is Calling Out Donald Trump’s Totally False Claims
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham challenged Speaker Mike Johnson when he parroted the president’s talking points.
House Speaker Mike Johnson faced unexpected criticism during his interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham about the government shutdown.
On Tuesday’s “The Ingraham Angel,” Johnson repeated a popular MAGA claim that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was imposing a government shutdown for political gain.
“He wants to give free health care to illegal immigrants,” Johnson said, a claim repeated by President Donald Trump and his administration.
Ingraham responded to Johnson: “Schumer says that’s not true. Democrats say he’s going to expand Medicaid and get his money back.”
She then added, “It gives leeway to illegal immigrants—I call them ‘undocumented Democrats’—but they are illegal immigrants in some cases, and it’s permissible to use the money for people who don’t have legal status.”
Johnson then claimed that Ingraham was “wrong” and echoed Trump’s comments.
In a post published on Truth Social last week, containing several factual errors, Trump wrote, “Democrats want undocumented immigrants, many of whom are violent criminals, to get free health care.”
He also claimed that Democrats want to keep the names of deceased people on the Medicaid and Social Security rolls so that “criminals can continue to collect these payments and steal their money.” He added that Democrats support “many other things that will destroy America.”
The president concluded by declaring, “We cannot let this happen!”
While disagreements over health care are at the heart of the government shutdown, they are linked to Democrats’ attempts to push for federal benefits that would allow more Americans to afford health care. Reversing Trump’s Medicaid cuts is also a key issue.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid, and Trump’s One Big Beautiful bill, introduced earlier this year, limited the number of legal immigrants eligible for health benefits. However, Republicans have continued to use false claims about immigrants to criticize Democrats. Trump even released an AI-generated video of Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, set to mariachi music, in which Jeffries is seen wearing a sombrero and sporting a mustache.
Under questioning from Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean, Johnson himself said the video was “not his style,” while rejecting the theory that the video was actually racist.
Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday evening, Johnson said the president posted the video as a joke.
“I told him I disagreed with his opinion, but I tried to bring it back to the heart of the matter,” Johnson told Collins. “The disagreement tonight is not about social media posts, but about how to maintain government access to the American people.”
