Why Lara Trump Is Suddenly Out Of A Job At Fox News

A year after her father-in-law left the White House, Lara Trump pursued a new line of work as a paid contributor to the Fox News network. At the time, she was welcomed with open arms, according to The Guardian; one of the network hosts greeted her with "Welcome to the family, Lara." She, in turn, replied that she had already been interviewed on Fox "so often that the security guards were like, 'Maybe we should just give you a key.'"

Now that those family relations have cooled, Lara will have to return that key. According to the Los Angeles Times and other outlets, Fox News has "parted ways" with Lara, the wife of former first son Eric Trump. A representative for Fox made a brief public statement: "We appreciate Lara's valuable contributions across Fox News Media programming." So, why has Lara parted ways with the network? It seems there is a conflict of interest issue. The company has a policy against hiring anyone who is either actively running for office or directly connected to an active campaign.

Now that Donald Trump has confidently announced his 2024 candidacy for presidential re-election, Lara Trump is apparently considered too close to his campaign to be an objective correspondent. The Los Angeles Times notes that she was a "robust" supporter of her father-in-law even when others were condemning him — for instance, when Trump refused to say he had lost the 2020 election, even as insurrectionists were storming the Capitol in protest of Joe Biden's certification. However, there are murmurs that other motives were behind Lara's layoff.

While Fox News maintains that company policy was the sole reason for letting Lara go, the press is more than a little skeptical about that. The Washington Post points out that the network is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also runs News Corp., home to The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. Once, those conservative outlets were fully supportive of Donald Trump and his policies, but their stance toward the former president has changed drastically. 

When Donald Trump formally announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential ticket, the New York Post covered it with a roast (via CNN). The paper referred to Trump as "a Florida retiree" and "avid golfer," and called Mar-a-Lago "his resort and classified-documents library." The paper even implied he was too old to seek office again: "Trump, famous for gold-plated lobbies and for firing people on reality television, will be 78 in 2024."

Variety points out that Lara Trump still has the option of appearing on Fox as an unpaid correspondent, which wouldn't create a conflict of interest with her father-in-law's campaign. It doesn't seem likely that she will, however. The Los Angeles Times notes that Lara hasn't appeared on the network since Trump's campaign announcement, and her last appearance found her having to defend her father-in-law against a suggestion that he had lost his "magic" since his White House days.