Bret Baier Made it Worthwhile for Fox News to Send Him to Cover Trump in China — But Not Every Anchor Did

They already hand out too many media awards as it is — but if there was going to be a media MVP trophy for covering President Donald Trump’s trip to China last week, Fox News anchor Bret Baier should get it.

His China coverage stood out among the press pack — and likely had zero Fox News execs grumbling about footing what was surely a hefty bill to send him and a crew over.

In particular, Baier’s wide-ranging one-on-one interview with Trump on May 16 was the media highpoint of the trip. Baier pressed the president on his past claims that the Iran war would be over “fairly quick,” which Baier noted Trump had said “numerous times.”

That led to a polite squabble, with Trump explaining why Operation Epic Fury was a much tougher operation than the one that yanked Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela at the start of 2026.

Trump then explained the U.S. wants to take the nuclear dust from Iran. He said several other countries in the region wanted to go in and take it too, but that a “mountain literally collapsed on it” and made it harder to do.

“Right, so why isn’t that good enough?” Baier asked.

Trump told him, “It is good enough, but you know what? It’s not good enough public relations-wise.”

The 32-minute interview touched on a number of other big topics as well, including trade, tariffs, Trump’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Taiwan. Evan A. Feigenbaum -— an expert on Asia and a vice president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — called the interview a “must watch.”

He added on X, “Let’s just say, if you’ve worked on U.S.-China relations or Taiwan policy in or out of government in a prior administration, this is not conventional stuff.”

And even if you exclude the Trump interview, Baier earned his paycheck in Beijing. The dude was seemingly everywhere, filming standup shots while cars and motor scooters zoomed at a busy Beijing intersection, and also finding the time to show viewers how to order “robot coffee.” 

Baier also put a spotlight on the massive surveillance state that China’s communist government runs.

“Big brother is watching,” Baier told Special Report viewers. “There are literally cameras everywhere in Beijing.”

His cameraman learned that the hard way, picking up a $40 ticket for illegally parking for two minutes. Baier reported no one jaywalks in China because they can get a ticket ASAP for it; he also reported the CCP had installed 1,500 cameras in Beijing alone since the start of the year.

“They see everything,” Baier warned.

And it’s worth adding that Baier’s opinion side colleague Sean Hannity also did good work in China. He too had a splashy interview with the president — one which, while not as probing as Baier’s, was also illuminating.

Along with Baier and Hannity, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas deserves platitudes for his work in China — most notably his enlightening interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (Sean Hannity also scored a Rubio interview aboard Air Force One for Fox News.) Llamas covered a number of topics with Rubio, from China to Iran, and also pushed him a bit for an answer to whether he wants to become the next president.

“I want to be the Secretary of State, and I’ll worry about the future in the future,” Rubio told him.

It was another strong week for Llamas — who has been stringing those together on both the editorial and the ratings fronts. Llamas’s NBC Nightly News just posted its best run of year-over-year growth in the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demo since 2008.

The journey to Asia was a bit tougher for CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, though. The new-ish face of CBS News did not get a visa to enter China and was forced to broadcast from Taiwan.

Things didn’t go much better there, either, with the manager of the hotel he was staying at telling the Evening News crew they could not “cover anything political on their property”; that followed a segment on people being afraid to speak out against China in Taiwan.

The biggest moment from the CBS trip was when Dokoupil’s cameraman suffered a “medical emergency” and fainted during one of its Asia broadcasts. Thankfully he was alright, but it symbolized a jinxed trip for CBS.

But even if CBS had made it to China, it would have likely been fighting for a silver medal — as Baier very quickly locked up the gold. And here’s why that matters: Newsroom budgets are continuing to shrink. Networks are sure to look at cost-prohibitive trips such as this one as easy items to eliminate from the budget. That decision will be a lot easier at CBS than it will be at Fox News — because the latter network got plenty of bang for their buck.

Watch part of Baier’s interview with Trump above.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!