--- title: Rush Limbaugh Takes Donald Trump's Side in Debate Spat description: Limbaugh said Fox had played into the billionaire's hands. canonical: https://time.com/4196221/donald-trump-rush-limbaugh-debate/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-27T18:52:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T19:41:53.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Limbaugh Takes Trump's Side in Fox News Debate Spat og:description: He said Fox played into the billionaire's hands. og:url: https://time.com/4196221/donald-trump-rush-limbaugh-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1504b25dc186eb/69887a70524fc08740df66e0/donald-trump-iowa-caucus-campaign-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Muscatine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Limbaugh Takes Trump's Side in Fox News Debate Spat twitter:description: He said Fox played into the billionaire's hands. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1504b25dc186eb/69887a70524fc08740df66e0/donald-trump-iowa-caucus-campaign-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Limbaugh Takes Trump's Side in Fox News Debate Spat > Sponsored content. 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Jim Young—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:41 PM UTCPublished: Jan 27, 2016 6:52 PM UTC Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh took Donald Trump’s side in [a feud with](http://time.com/4195194/donald-trump-skip-fox-debate/) Fox News, saying the network had played into the billionaire’s hand by engaging him. Limbaugh weighed in on The Rush Limbaugh Show Wednesday, offering that he “can’t avoid discussing it” even though he has relationships with most of the parties involved. The argument between Fox and Trump picked back up when Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, declined an invitation Tuesday to the upcoming Republican debate hosted by Fox News. Trump, according to Limbaugh, has been suspicious of Fox since anchor Megyn Kelly asked him his [first question at his first debate.](http://time.com/3992052/megyn-kelly-donald-trump-feud/) Limbaugh argued that Trump was right to be suspicious. “There isn’t any fear, what there is here, in my opinion, is a desire to control this and a purposeful decision to not put himself in a circumstance where other people are going to make him look bad,” Limbaugh said. “This is what it looks like, when some guy stands up to the rules in the game, and says ‘screw yours, I’m looking out for me first.’ ” Limbaugh argued that Trump operates outside of the Republican establishment, for which there is “the game” played by “the rules.” “He’s never been a player in this game, he’s always been an outsider,” Limbaugh said. “He controls the media when he’s not on it. He controls the media when he is on it. He controls the media when he’s asleep.” Trump tweeted his satisfaction shortly after the Limbaugh offered his support. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/692422072967020544) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4196221/donald-trump-rush-limbaugh-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4196221/donald-trump-rush-limbaugh-debate/"},"headline":"Limbaugh Takes Trump's Side in Fox News Debate Spat","datePublished":"2016-01-27T18:52:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T19:41:53.000Z","description":"\"This is what it looks like, when some guy stands up to the rules in the game\"","url":"https://time.com/4196221/donald-trump-rush-limbaugh-debate/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","fox news","Debates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1504b25dc186eb/69887a70524fc08740df66e0/donald-trump-iowa-caucus-campaign-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb1504b25dc186eb/69887a70524fc08740df66e0/donald-trump-iowa-caucus-campaign-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Muscatine","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Muscatine, Iowa on Jan. 24, 2016.","creditText":"Jim Young—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4196221/donald-trump-rush-limbaugh-debate/","name":"Limbaugh Takes Trump's Side in Fox News Debate Spat"}}]}] ```