As the president’s ill-conceived conflict with Iran becomes more unstable and chaotic his personal propaganda machine has run out of ways to spin it to its viewers. Last week the network was more than happy to hype up a personal vendetta Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has against Dr. Anthony Fauci, formerly the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) cast himself as a noble physician battling what he believes is a corrupt mad scientist, Fauci, who was hellbent on accumulating power and wealth during one of the darkest chapters in recent American history. Although Paul is a medical doctor, he studied ophthalmology and briefly worked as an eye surgeon before following his father’s path in politics.

The senator might be able to surgically fix a problem in a human eye, but he has no expertise or experience with infectious diseases.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is a physician-scientist and immunologist with a decades long career as a public servant. Fauci was instrumental in the U.S. government response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Over a period of years he helped secure research funding, speed up drug trials, and helped design PEPFAR - a U.S. initiative to treat HIV/AIDS patients all over the world.

Fauci had the misfortune to run the NIAID when a new virus, SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, spread across the world while working with one of the most incompetent presidents in U.S. history - Donald J. Trump.

During the public health catastrophe Fauci kept notes about his work on a government issued computer. Senator Paul subpoenaed the personal notes Fox News called “The Fauci Diaries” and attempted to use Fauci’s writing to bolster a false narrative about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paul’s pursuit of Fauci resulted in a Senate committee hearing last week where the doctor evoked his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination over 100 times. Meanwhile Paul and his fellow GOP senators cherry picked statements from the personal notes and mocked Fauci for passages about his fascination with celebrities and his newfound fame.

The focus on COVID provided the network with an easy way to avoid discussing an unpopular war while it provided Fox News viewers an opportunity to re-ride the roller coaster of conspiracy theories, snake oil remedies and vaccine avoidance that cost hundreds of thousands of American lives.

In addition to the network’s obsessive coverage of a senate committee hearing that gave their viewers no new information Fox News hosts continued to openly criticize Trump’s handling of the war in Iran while insisting that the United States was on the brink of a communist takeover by a small group of Democratic Socialists.

Most of the folks at Fox News last week looked like they would rather endure a drug-free root canal performed by a trained chimpanzee than talk about Trump’s disastrous war in Iran. The conflict that was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks has dragged on for months with no real end in sight.

More American troops have paid the ultimate sacrifice as Iran managed to strike U.S. a military base in Jordan. As soon as the first retaliatory strike was launched at an Iranian target gas prices spiked.

As the midterm elections loom Trump is dropping like a stone in the polls. Most of the president’s campaign promises have not materialized as grocery prices remain stubbornly high, mortgage rates have spiked, Black and Latino unemployment are higher now than when Trump started his second term, the national debt has increasedand residential electricity rates have gone up in nearly every state.

The war in the Middle East will only make everything worse for Trump as it has caused an increase in the price of petroleum-based fuels along with fertilizer. His plan to add additional tariffs to nearly every country on planet earth won’t ease the affordability crisis.

The president continues to boast to the American public about a booming stock market, but the average citizen won’t touch most of their investments until retirement. The gains they might see in their 401(k) plans, IRAs or stock portfolios are just Monopoly money until they sell.

Trump is slowly sinking a ship he managed to pull out of the depths of his party’s losses in 2020 and the riot on January 6th.

Last week Fox News hosts openly called the war unpopular and questioned how the so called decimated Iranian military was able to strike U.S. targets. Jesse Watters was the only Fox News hosts who has not lost faith. Even Sean Hannity couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for the conflict.

Producers at The Five decided the war wasn’t even worth covering so it wasn’t mentioned for most of the week. Laura Ingraham spent more time discussing the woke leadership at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

The network put far more focus on trashing Democrats last week than covering a regional Middle East conflict that could spiral out of control at any moment.

Last week the folks at Fox News seemed like the frustrated parents of a juvenile delinquent son who was caught setting his high school principal’s car on fire.

The network had no problem spinning measles outbreaks, the Epstein files coverup, the murder of Iranian school children, the mass pardon of cop beaters, the president’s insider trading, self-dealing, foreign bribes, vanity projects, or his deference to Bibi Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin.

Fox News didn’t seem to care that he kept threatening the very foundations of our democracy with unconstitutional executive orders while openly defying various court rulings.

The network didn’t mind when high-ranking members of the Trump administration openly lied about details regarding the death of two American citizens at the hands of federal law enforcement agents.

The spikes in inflation, gasoline prices and residential electricity rates weren’t even speed bumps to the folks at Fox News who kept insisting the country was experiencing a new golden age of prosperity.

As the Ukraine War raged on without an end in sight no one on Fox News seemed to remember Trump’s promise to end it before he was sworn in for his second term.

Even his deeply unpopular war of choice in the Middle East didn’t cause much concern.

Last Thursday their glorious leader took a step too far when he used up about a half an hour of primetime television to spin the same election lies that cost the network $787.5 million. Fox News still faces a $2 billion defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic for the lies the network knowingly promoted about the 2020 election.

Trump committed the ultimate sin. He was messing with the money.

Since Trump’s primetime address I’ve noticed a subtle shift on Fox News away from the president. The network is still trying to terrify its audience about the looming threat of a communist takeover of radical Democrats.

Fox News is still demonizing transgender folks and undocumented immigrants. It continues to beat the drum about the evils of diversity, equity and inclusion in American institutions.

The network mocks what it calls ‘woke’ celebrities while it promotes racist tropes about urban crime and the decay of western civilization. The cultural battles are never-ending while some of the shine of their populist hero is chipping off like the American Flag Blue coating on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

Last week I noticed a slight transition away from the usual praise for the president. It’s beginning to sink in that his administration could be a catastrophe for the conservative movement and the Fox News media empire.