Turns out, if you want a personal phone call from the President of the United States, say something nice about him on Hannity.
That’s precisely what Tomi Lahren did on February 7, when she appeared on the Fox News show to talk about her whirlwind success as a pundit. The 24-year-old conservative firebrand, best known for her bleach blond hair and eponymous show on TheBlaze, told Sean Hannity that she became a Donald Trump supporter during the general election when she saw “so many average, every-day Americans” gravitate toward him. “Because they said, guess what? This man is doing something amazing,” Lahren said. “He’s running against the Democratic party and, in some ways, the Republican party as well. And he won.”
A source tells Washingtonian that Trump watched the segment live.
Later that night, Lahren’s phone started ringing. It was the President.
“He called and said, ‘Thank you for your fair coverage of me,’” Lahren confirms.
Beyond thanking her for her comments on Hannity, Lahren says that the President lauded her commentary on her own show leading up to the election. “I did a lot of work during the campaign that went viral,” Lahren says, including such segments as her defense of Trump amid the fallout of the Access Hollywood tape. In her estimate, those videos were persuasive for “apprehensive voters.”
Lahren says that during the call, the President “was asking about me personally.” She didn’t divulge what, exactly, but estimates they talked “for a solid 10 to 15 minutes.”
That Trump took the time to phone Lahren underscores not only Lahren’s growing visibility in the world of conservative punditry, but also the immovable role that Fox News—and specifically Hannity—plays in the President’s daily routine.
And if Lahren’s subsequent Hannity appearances are any indication, her Trump boosterism isn’t set to dim anytime soon. “He is a good man,” Lahren says. “And what you see is what you get with him.”
Amanda has contributed to Washingtonian since 2016. She has written about the right-wing media personality Britt McHenry, chronicled her night with Stormy Daniels, and come clean about owning too much stuff. She lives on H Street. She can be reached at [email protected].
