Fox News anchor Bret Baier recently said the media should “100%” look into Trump family corruption — but in the months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Special Report has aired just 1 segment about the family's financial conflicts, while failing to mention the president's sons' alleged influence peddling.

In stark contrast, Baier’s Special Report aired at least 32 segments from October 14 to November 1, 2020 about Hunter Biden's supposed corruption in the days after the New York Post broke the story regarding former President Joe Biden's son's laptop.

A growing number of mainstream news reports have raised concerns about potential influence peddling involving Trump’s children, particularly Eric and Donald Jr. In light of those alleged schemes, Politico's Dasha Burns asked Baier during a May 9 interview if news media have a duty to cover the Trump sons’ deals “just as hard” as coverage of alleged influence peddling by former President Joe Biden's son Hunter. 

Baier responded decisively, saying “100%.” He added, “If you're going to play it one way, you've got to play it another way and you’ve got to cover all of those things.”

Despite claiming that the media should look into reports of corruption related to the children of any president, Baier and his show have been reluctant to talk about Trump's family, airing only 1 segment about financial conflicts in the 81 episodes since inauguration. The show's sole example mentioning the schemes hardly met Baier's own standard — on April 9, the anchor teed up a barely 2-minute report about Trump's plan to dismantle the Justice Department’s national cryptocurrency enforcement team by noting that “his family has a financial stake in a major platform.” Later, correspondent David Spunt reported that “the Trump family claims 75% of net revenue from the company World Liberty [Financial’s] token sales.”

In comparison, Baier's show devoted over an hour and a half of airtime to Hunter Biden's alleged influence peddling during a 19 day period in 2020, airing a segment on the story in 11 of 13 episodes. Throughout the Biden administration, the network as a whole was heavily fixated on Hunter, going so far as to mention him over 13,000 times in a 16 month period.

According to Axios, the Trump children have been involved in a series of high-profile “ethically murky business ventures,” including the “Executive Branch” members-only club in D.C., branded projects with foreign partners, Trump Organization merchandise sales, and corporate board appointments for the president's sons. Their direct involvement in cryptocurrency schemes are also central to many reported concerns about influence peddling, with both brothers reportedly positioned to massively benefit from token sales.

Discussing the “$TRUMP” meme coin, Pivot co-host Scott Galloway explained, “The Trump family's net worth has increased by $3 billion or a billion dollars a month since he took office.” He added, “Meanwhile, 800,000 wallets of mostly smaller holders have lost money on their Trump coin.” Galloway explained that “World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm run by Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., 60% of it is owned by … Trump-affiliated entity, and they are entitled to 75% of its revenue,” adding “It's raised more than a half a billion dollars from investors who purchased the World Liberty Financial governance token.”

Baier's willingness to largely ignore stories that could be detrimental to the president and his family should come as no surprise. As Media Matters Senior Fellow Matt Gertz previously explained, “His program prioritizes stories which flatter the right’s biases and soft-pedals or ignores damaging revelations about Trump.” 

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of Fox News’ Special Report for any of the terms “Hunter,” “Biden,” “Bo,” “Beau,” or “Joe” within close proximity of any of the terms “New York Post,” “the Post,” “laptop,” “e-mail,” “email,” “Burisma,” “Pozharskyi,” “MacBook,” “computer," “Shokin,” “Archer,” “Zlochevsky,” “Mesires,” or “Costello” or any variation of the term “Ukraine” from October 14, 2020, when the New York Post broke the “laptop” story regarding Hunter Biden's alleged corruption, through November 1, 2020.

Media Matters also searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of Fox News' Special Report for any of the terms “Trump,” “Eric,” “Donald,” “Don,” “junior,” or “jr” within close proximity to any of the terms “Liberty,” “coin,” “token,” “club,” “donor,” “LIV,” “golf,” “Saudi,” “ethics,” “merchandise,” “corruption,” “financial dealing,” “bribery,” “grift,” “kickback,” “influence peddling,” “USD1,” “stablecoin,” “bitcoin,” “board,” “Executive Branch,” “hotel,” “tower,” “Dubai,” or “blockchain” or any variation of the terms “crypto” or “Dominari” from January 20, 2025, when President Donald Trump was inaugurated, through May 13, 2025.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when alleged influence peddling or financial conflicts from either Hunter Biden, Donald Trump Jr., or Eric Trump were the stated topic of discussion, or when we found significant discussion of any of the allegations of influence peddling or financial conflicts. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed alleged influence peddling or financial conflicts with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned either allegations of influence peddling or financial conflicts without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about either allegations of influence peddling or financial conflicts scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.