Bill O'Reilly took on the role of Donald Trump's surrogate last night to defend Trump's lies about his so-called fundraiser for veterans that was really just revenge on Fox News.

After spending the intro justifying Trump and his ridiculous claims, O'Reilly turned to his guest, Colonel David Hunt, to ask why this was ever controversial in the first place. Hunt's response was not what O'Reilly was expecting at all.

"Because Trump created it. I’m very grateful that Trump raised the money, announced it in January, but he made it into an ‘attack on me’ thing. He buried the lede on this.”

“Part of the problem is how it was announced,” he went on, “and by the way — the way to do this is the way you give money, you do it quietly and go on your way.”

Cue O'Reilly poutrage as he dropped into full Defend Trump mode.

“It was a supposition fabricated by people in the press, there was no data or accounting that said ‘Donald Trump stiffed the vets.'”

Bill O'Reilly would know something about press fabrication, wouldn't he? And in fact, the Washington Post hit close enough to the truth of the matter to actually prompt Trump to hold that press conference to defend himself.

Hunt patiently explained that Trump used the veterans by skipping the Fox debate. This was his way of using them for political gain. "He didn’t do it quietly, he wanted it to be public — he wanted to use it politically, so the press kept pushing.”

But BillO is BillO, and he doesn't take no for an answer, so he pushed back on Hunt yet again, saying, “I don’t think so. I think the lede was that the press insinuated something that wasn’t true, and today Trump corrected them.”

Later that night, Trump made an appearance on Hannity's show, where Hannity endorsed Trump outright.

There you have it, folks. We've gone from the Fox News Network to the Fox-Trump News Network. They retort; you decide.