Jesse Watters celebrated Trump’s calls for revenge. Now, Watters says that the idea that Trump is out for revenge is a hoax.

Written by Helena Hind

Published

Fox News’ Jesse Watters is attempting to fool his audience into believing that former President Donald Trump has no plans for political retribution should he win the 2024 presidential election, despite previously hyping a Trump “revenge tour” and celebrating the former president’s threats to execute Gen. Mark Milley and pull news networks’ broadcast licenses.

Following the lead of his fellow pro-Trump media sycophants, Watters is currently downplaying the former president’s well-documented calls for political retribution in an apparent attempt to undermine the Biden campaign’s characterization of Trump as a would-be authoritarian.

  • Watters claims that Trump’s only retribution plan is “revenge through success”

    On the June 12 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, the Fox host declared that Trump’s only retribution plan is “revenge through success,” citing a clip from a June 2 Fox & Friends interview. “Everybody wins, even Trump’s enemies,” Watters claimed.

    An over-the-shoulder graphic captioned “revenge hoax” aired throughout a portion of the segment.

    The next day, Watters repeated the claim that “success is his revenge” and accused MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire of being a “spook” for reporting otherwise.

    From the June 12, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

  • Watters previously celebrated Trump's calls for revenge: “You better believe it’s open season”

    Watters’ attempt to sanitize Trump’s calls for retribution by relying on one soundbite from a friendly interview looks even more disingenuous when compared to what he was telling his Fox News audience last year.

    On August 1, after Trump was indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case, the Fox host characterized the imprisonment of Trump’s political enemies as an inevitability: “Don't you think for a second he's not going to unleash hell on all of his political enemies,” Watters asserted. “This is only the beginning of politicians putting other politicians and their families in prison. Sad we had to go down this road, but this is where we are and now we have to finish it.”

    Watters escalated the next day, promising his viewers that a Trump win would be the beginning of a “revenge tour” where “he'll be out for blood” and predicting that Trump’s political enemies and their families “will be legally assaulted … everything’s fair game.”

    From the August 2, 2023, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime 

    WATTERS: The election came down to just about 40,000 votes between three states, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Trump had to had flipped half of that 40,000. And he wins the Electoral College. That's about as razor-thin as you can get. Which makes you understand why Trump was fighting so hard for every vote.

    And that fight's going to continue in court next year when Philly, Detroit, Milwaukee, Clark County, Nevada, and Maricopa County, Arizona, and the entire state of Georgia are going to have to prove on the stand that they ran clean elections. 

    But that's only the appetizer. If Trump wins after he pardons himself, welcome to the revenge tour. Oh, he'll be out for blood. You think he's going to let bygones be bygones? He's going to put his men at Justice and Clintons, Obamas, the Pelosis, the Schiffs, and yeah of course, the Bidens, everyone will be legally assaulted. Their family members, providers, their businesses, everything's fair game after this. 

    Trump won't care about reelection because he's only serving one term. Biden is creating a one-man wrecking crew but with a list of mile-long. A lot of people are going to get fired in Washington and the rules are going to change. Scream and holler all you want. But if you're going to try to make a 78-year-old former president die in prison away from his friends and family, hit him with 78 charges after spying on him and impeaching him twice, oh, you better believe it is open season.

    “A lot of people are going to get fired in Washington and the rules are going to change,” Watters declared. “Scream and holler all you want. But if you're going to try to make a 78-year-old former president die in prison away from his friends and family, hit him with 78 charges after spying on him and impeaching him twice, oh, you better believe it’s open season.” 

    In the following months, Watters continued to tease Trump’s inevitable retribution. He also celebrated Trump’s threats to execute Gen. Mark Milley and revoke news networks’ broadcast licenses, saying: “The revenge tour is in full swing.”

    Since taking up the mantle of Fox News’ 8 p.m. host, Watters has continued to push outlandish conspiracy theories and run cover for the former president’s unsavory campaign promises. If Trump continues to jockey for retribution in public – as he likely will – Watters will have to continue to cry “hoax.”