Fox News' Jessica Tarlov Says She Wishes Donald Trump Won in 2020 Because He 'Got Stronger' After His Loss

Fox News’ liberal contributor Jessica Tarlov stated she wishes Donald Trump had won the 2020 presidential election so that his political timeline would already be finished.

During an interview with David Remnick on The New Yorker Radio Hour released on Tuesday, August 25, Tarlov — who serves as a prominent liberal co-host on The Five — explained that Trump's four years out of office ultimately allowed his movement to gain more power.

Rather than expressing support for Trump's policies, Tarlov's comments were a strategic critique of how the years between 2020 and 2024 played out for Democrats and the country.

Tarlov stated that without the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump likely would have won re-election in 2020.

“I look back to the 2020 lines of argumentation about why we needed Donald Trump out and what Joe Biden could provide, and it was a safe pair of hands,” Tarlov said. “And I believe without Covid that Trump would have won re-election, and I wish that he had. I wish we were done now because he, like [The Little Mermaid villain] Ursula, got stronger in those four years."

She argued that a second consecutive Trump term would have limited the long-term impact of his most radical allies.

She noted that advisers like Stephen Miller and Russ Vought, as well as Christofascist initiatives like Project 2025, became significantly more organized and powerful because they had four years out of office to plan.

Tarlov lamented that Democrats spent four years allowing the opposition "to take a sledgehammer to the country" while failing to counter with simple, resonant messaging.

“Project 2025, not a thing, right? And so I hate that we gave them four years to take a sledgehammer to the country, and we haven’t found a way to deliver our vision for the future in simple slogans," Tarlov said.

She criticized her fellow liberals for lacking simple, impactful messaging, arguing that they focus too heavily on academic details rather than crafting effective political slogans that resonate with everyday voters.

When Remnick asked if the party's messaging has failed because liberals are "too decorous, too mild," Tarlov agreed, elaborating on the core issues with the left's communication strategy.

“Because we’re too decorous, too mild, too… I don’t know. I mean, I have a Ph.D, so, like, I get it. I get why it’s interesting to write a big policy paper or dig deep into what happened. But for me, it’s like, just give me the bumper stickers. Where’s your ‘no tax on tips’?” she said.