{"id":37866,"date":"2025-01-30T03:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T09:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37866"},"modified":"2025-01-30T03:01:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T09:01:28","slug":"how-dr-phil-suddenly-became-so-outspoken-about-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37866","title":{"rendered":"How ‘Dr. Phil’ suddenly became so outspoken about immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the Trump administration’s immigration raids ramped up across America, many people were stunned to see a former daytime TV staple take center stage \u2014 Phil McGraw, commonly known as “Dr. Phil,”\u2002<\/a>who accompanied immigration agents during raids around Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McGraw, who came to national fame alongside Oprah Winfrey and hosted \u201cDr. Phil\u201d for more than two decades<\/a>, said he had embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they apprehended \u201cknown criminals and terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McGraw in the past year has become a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration positions, discussing his views on TV, podcasts and social media and even at a Trump rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement when he ended his CBS daytime show in 2023, McGraw said that he had \u201cgrave concerns for the American family\u201d and that he was \u201cdetermined to help restore a clarity of purpose as well as our core values.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He offered a glimpse into his views on immigration during a \u201cDr. Phil\u201d show in January 2023. That’s when he told his guests and the audience that he believed U.S. immigration laws were not being properly enforced and that \u201cwe can\u2019t get our act together by doing this the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before last year, McGraw did not appear to have ever used terms such as \u201cillegal,\u201d \u201cborder,\u201d \u201cimmigration\u201d or \u201cICE\u201d in his social media content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That all changed in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he was becoming more vocal about immigration, McGraw launched his new media venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merit TV \u2014 which has a direct streaming option, as well as spots\u2002<\/a>on DirectTV, Spectrum and other linear providers \u2014 launched 10 months ago<\/a>, claiming to seek<\/a> “common ground through clarity and common sense, providing traditional family content while also disrupting the news landscape with unbiased reporting on issues that mattter most to Americans.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merit TV<\/a> is also affiliated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network<\/a>, which carries programming<\/a> from well-known conservatives like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and child star-turned-social conservative\u2002<\/a>Kirk Cameron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was the name recognition McGraw built on his daytime talk show that was apparent in Chicago this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one scene from the raids, a man being detained by ICE told McGraw, “You’re Dr. Phil.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How do you know me?” McGraw responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve seen ‘Dr. Phil’ on TV,” the man answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of a TV figure popping up in such an out-of-context situation in regard to Trump and his policies should not surprise anyone, Syracuse University professor and TV historian Robert Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He likes people who are good on TV, who have been on TV, who are celebrities and who are willing to play with him, and ‘Dr. Phil,’ of course, has been on TV for a long time,” Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I guess seeing ‘Dr. Phil’ pop up in the center of one of these major events in the first couple of weeks of operations, it’d be surprising in any normal circumstances. But it’s not surprising in the real circumstances of today,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Trump administration’s immigration raids ramped up across America, many people were stunned to see a former daytime TV staple take center stage \u2014 Phil McGraw, commonly known as “Dr. Phil,”\u2002who accompanied immigration agents during raids around Chicago. McGraw, who came to national fame alongside Oprah Winfrey and hosted \u201cDr. Phil\u201d for more than two decades, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[32174,1214,1230],"class_list":["post-37866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-dr-phil","tag-immigration","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37868,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37866\/revisions\/37868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}