On Friday, President Donald Trump announced he was cutting aid to the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
On Sunday morning, Fox News reported the policy update in a conversation on popular show Fox & Friends, underlined by a banner graphic that read “Trump cuts U.S. aid to 3 Mexican countries.” Of course for the news station, Mexico is one country, not three, and is not affected by Trump’s change. Naturally, the internet had a field day lambasting the channel for their incorrect chyron headline.
A few hours later, the show’s co-host Ed Henry followed up the snafu with an on-air apology. “We had an inaccurate graphic onscreen while taking about this very story. We just want to be clear, the funding is being cut off to the three Central American countries. We apologize for the error — it never should’ve happened,” he said.
For some, however, the correction was already too little too late. “Just a reminder that these are the same folks who assert their superiority by belittling the intelligence and good faith of others,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted with a screenshot of the inaccurate headline.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of Indiana, who is in the running to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, had another take: “Amazingly, the chyron is not the most foolish thing about this picture,” he said. “To get ahead of a potential refugee crisis caused by great suffering in Central America, it would make sense to use our resources to help reduce that suffering.”
Trump’s policy change stems from his belief that the three Central American countries are contributing to what he calls a “migrant caravan.” “If we’re going to give these countries hundreds of millions of dollars, we would like them to do more,” his current White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told CNN. The people of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have been dealing with protracted humanitarian and political crises, including organized crime, agricultural challenges and restrictive government policies, for years.
