President-elect Donald Trump, heavily involved in Mar-a-Lago in recent weeks, will make a rare appearance outside the Florida resort to accept the “Patriot of the Year” award at FOX Nation’s Patriot Awards on Thursday night.
Trump, who has been announcing job picks as he builds his administration, will travel to Long Island, New York, for the annual awards ceremony on the Fox News streaming platform.
The event is being hosted by Fox host Sean Hannity, a friend of Trump who stepped in after President-elect Pete Hegseth, the original host, was nominated as secretary of defense.
The annual awards “honor and recognize America’s best patriots, including military veterans, first responders and other inspiring everyday heroes,” according to Fox.
Trump wrote on his Truth social site earlier this week that he appeared to be “very close” to receiving the Patriot of the Year award, an honor he called “very nice!” The award marks the culmination of a recovery for president-elect Fox, who has had an up-and-down relationship with the network in recent years.
The network paid US$787 million in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims by Fox personalities that echoed Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him through mass voter fraud. For more than six months ending in spring 2023, Fox had what many considered a “soft ban” on Trump’s presence, with its leaders trying to move forward. But when it became clear that voters didn’t want that, Fox and its personalities were quick to embrace Trump again.
Individual figures have had their own journeys: Former Fox host Megyn Kelly drew Trump’s ire in a 2015 debate. Now he is a popular podcast host and Trump supporter. The Dominion lawsuit uncovered emails in which former Fox host Tucker Carlson spoke disparagingly of Trump, including saying he “really can’t wait” for Trump to become the former president. They have since modified it.
Through it all, Trump has been quick to take to social media to criticize Fox for content he deems insufficiently loyal.
After spending most of his transition behind closed doors at his club in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump has begun making public appearances. This week, he made an unannounced appearance at a memorial service for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies killed in a car crash last month.
And this weekend, he will travel to Paris to join other world leaders and dignitaries for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, which was destroyed by fire five years ago.