John Fredericks, a little-known Virginia radio host, is again using his morning radio show as a revolving door for Trump media surrogates while he attempts to secure a position as chairman of the Virginia Trump presidential campaign in 2020.
As noted by Media Matters in 2016, Fredericks is a little-known drive time radio host who was repeatedly landing on-air interviews with then-candidate Trump and his top-level campaign spokespeople despite his show’s small audience. Clips of the interviews, which are uploaded to Frederick’s YouTube channel, hardly ever receive more than 100 plays and often receive much fewer.
It turned out that Fredericks had served as the co-chair and then chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign in Virginia, after having predicted in May 2015 that Trump would win the Republican nomination and general election, and was using his position as a radio host to aid the campaign efforts—without disclosing his position with the campaign.
It appears that the John Fredericks Show continues to be a pit stop for pro-Trump media pundits, and Fredericks is hoping to regain his campaign position in the state of Virginia. In just the last month, Fredericks has hosted such national-level Trump boosters as former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, former Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Liz Harrington, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
As election season approaches, Fredericks is vying again for the chairman position. Last month, Fredericks received an on-air endorsement from Bannon to become the Virginia state chairman of the Trump 2020 campaign.
“You could not pick a better person than John Fredericks. Two-thousand-sixteen was a tough year for us in Virginia and that’s because Virginia has become a very tough state for not just Republicans, but for people backing the Trump agenda, to win. If we’re going to have a shot to win, we have to have people like you, John, in leadership positions,” Bannon told Fredericks.
On the Fox Business Network channel last month, host Trish Regan introduced Fredericks as a member of the Trump 2020 Advisory Board.
