Jeanine Pirro, whom President Trump selected this week to serve as the top prosecutor in the District of Columbia, is just the latest in a slew of Fox News hosts and personalities to join the president’s administration this year.
Pirro on Thursday became one of more than a dozen former Fox employees or contributors who have spoken glowingly about the president on the network’s air and been rewarded with top jobs in his government.
The trend suggests Trump is closely watching what is said about him and his policies on the conservative cable channel and values figures who are both compelling on television and loyal to his agenda.
Here are some of the former Fox News personalities serving in top positions in Trump’s administration during his second term.
Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for DC
Pirro is a former judge and prosecutor who was elected multiple times to serve as district attorney for Westchester County in New York.
For the last 15 years, Pirro has made a name for herself as one of Fox News’s most aggressively conservative pundits, work that has endeared her to the president.
She most recently was a co-host of “The Five,” the network’s top-rated program, and has used that platform to offer regular praise of Trump and attack his opponents.
Pirro, known widely across the cable news world for her sharp one-liners and fiery takes, has landed in hot water with her commentary in the past, sometimes with her own network.
When the host made comments in 2019 questioning Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) loyalty to America, Fox publicly distanced itself from those remarks and suspended her.
Trump defended Pirro at the time, and he demanded the network bring her back quickly.
The president sees Pirro as a key ally to help him to “clean up” Washington, D.C., and signaled he expects her to take a strong stance against crime.
“Jeanine is incredibly well qualified for this position and is considered one of the Top District Attorneys in the History of the State of New York,” Trump wrote on Truth Social when selecting her. “She is in a class by herself.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Pete Hegseth was one of Fox News’s most popular weekend hosts when he was selected by Trump to lead the Pentagon.
A combat veteran who served in various roles at Fox for a decade, Hegseth had been a vocal critic of “wokeness” in the military while at the network and applauded Trump’s “America First” posture toward foreign adversaries.
Hegseth faced a tough confirmation battle in the Senate, thanks to allegations of heavy drinking and mistreatment of women, which he has denied
Weeks later, the former “Fox & Friends” weekend host was at the center of another controversy when The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly included on an unsecured Signal chat where Hegseth and other top intelligence officials discussed plans for an upcoming attack on terrorists in Yemen.
Through it all, Trump has stood by the former top cable news host.
“This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,” Hegseth told reporters during the White House Easter Egg Roll last month. “Not going to work with me.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy is a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin who had experience in the media and entertainment world before he entered public service.
A former cast member of MTV’s “The Real World,” Duffy is married to Rachel Campos-Duffy, another leading face at Fox and a former co-host of Hegseth’s on Fox News’s weekend morning show.
Duffy, who also contributed to CNN after leaving Congress, was hired by Fox to host a show on Fox Business in 2022, where he caught Trump’s attention and earned himself a spot in the president’s Cabinet.
Duffy has presided over the Department of Transportation at a time of widespread concern about air traffic control problems across the country and other issues relating to passengers’ safety.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard was also a member of the U.S. House, but as a Democrat, before joining Fox.
Gabbard’s pivot toward the right earned her a job as a contributor on the cable channel and opportunities to fill in as a host for prime-time pundits ahead of the 2024 election.
The former lawmaker from Hawaii used her perch at Fox to defend Trump from negative headlines and to ridicule her former party over its vision for the country.
Gabbard endorsed Trump before the 2024 election and spoke in support of him at rallies along the campaign trail before she was selected to serve as head of intelligence for his second administration.
During her first few months as director of national intelligence, Gabbard has been sharply critical of the previous administration’s policy toward Ukraine and vowed to crack down on intelligence leaks to journalists.
“Our nation’s Intelligence Community must be focused on our national security mission,” Gabbard wrote on social media in March. “Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people and will not be tolerated.”
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, has been a well-known conservative media figure for years.
He joined Fox in 2021 with an hourlong Saturday evening show, which was canceled two years later.
A sharp critic of top media figures and Democrats, Bongino took over the late radio host Rush Limbaugh’s program on Cumulus Media before being selected by Trump to serve as FBI Director Kash Patel’s second in command.
Like Patel, Bongino has regularly railed against a so-called deep state in federal law enforcement that he says is working to undermine Trump and his agenda.
“Trust absolutely NOTHING emanating from the DOJ or FBI that even remotely whiffs of politics,” Bongino wrote on social media just days before Trump’s November 2024 victory. “Especially before an election, where they have a deep and troubled history of election interference in defense of their democrat allies.”
Tom Homan, border czar
Tom Homan, a hard-line immigration official who has served in several presidential administrations, began as a contributor at Fox News in 2019.
A vocal advocate for Trump’s immigration policies for years, Homan regularly appears on television and in other media to defend the president’s push for strengthened border security.
Homan made headlines last fall with comments to “60 Minutes” in which he said families of immigrants “can be deported together” when asked about the prospect of separating children from their parents during removals of people lacking permanent legal status from the country.
A sharp critic of Democratic initiatives on immigration, Homan recently backed Trump’s suggestion that the closed prison at Alcatraz be reopened to house detained immigrants, saying “we need beds” and that such an option should “certainly be on the table.”
Former RNC Chair Lara Trump
While the president’s daughter-in-law is not in the administration, she is one of the most prominent examples of the symbiotic relationship between Trump World and Fox’s ranks.
Originally joining the network as a contributor in 2021, Lara Trump left Fox a year later to take a top position in the Republican nominee’s campaign. She also served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and was rumored to be in consideration for a vacant Senate seat in her home state of North Carolina.
The wife of Eric Trump, a leading conservative activist and a strong public speaker, Lara Trump inked a deal with Fox earlier this year to host a weekend prime-time show titled “My View.”
The hiring denoted the first time a sitting president has had a relative presiding over a national cable program.
Lara Trump’s show gives Fox unique access to the president’s administration and his family, while the president has promoted her show in return.
“Remember, Lara Trump opens her big new show tonight on Fox News,” Trump wrote to his followers on social media the day her new program premiered, adding she deserved some credit for his “Big WIN” in November.
“I may be slightly prejudiced,” the president conceded, “but she really is an amazing person.”
