Fox News host Sean Hannity has denied a report from The New York Times that claimed that President Donald Trump called him and promoted the border bill that Congress passed this week.
Trump is set to sign a funding bill on Friday, which would avert another government shutdown but would not grant him the billions he requested for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Times reported on Wednesday that Trump tried to defend his decision to accept the compromise bill to some high-profile conservatives, including Hannity, who tweeted on Thursday that this “never happened #FakeNews”
The lack of money for a wall has caused contention among Trump’s more prominent conservative supporters, such as Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, and Ann Coulter. The Times reported that the president contacted two of his preferred hosts, one on Fox News and one on the Fox Business Network, to try and convince them of the bill’s merits.
“One call was made to Lou Dobbs, a favorite of Mr. Trump’s whose Fox Business Network show he often tries to catch live. Another was placed to Sean Hannity, the Fox host who regularly talks with the president. The message: Mr. Trump deserved support because he still forced concessions that he would never have gotten without a five-week partial government shutdown.”