Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov spent a chunk of Friday’s edition of “The Five” methodically taking apart Vice President JD Vance’s rally speech, pushing back on his claims about homeownership, President Donald Trump’s record and the “fraudsters and criminals” label he pinned on the Democratic Party.
Speaking earlier Friday in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, Vance told supporters that the housing market was beginning to turn a corner for the next generation. “We got a lot of work to do, but we’re finally seeing that American dream of homeownership become accessible again to our young people,” Vance declared. He argued that the November elections would come down to whether Washington works for families and children instead of fraudsters and criminals, and whether the president puts Americans first.
Tarlov, the panel’s only liberal, was discussing a progressive shift within the Democratic Party when she pivoted to the vice president’s talking points, beginning with his housing claim.
“The average age of homeownership just hit 40 years old in this country,” Tarlov said. She noted that mortgage rates have risen while construction has dropped off — a slowdown she attributed directly to the war in Iran.
A War, a Strait and Shipping Costs
Trump began the war with Iran in February, and Tehran responded by shutting the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil. Fuel prices rose as a result, and that jump has reportedly pushed up the cost of transporting construction materials — pressure that ultimately lands on homebuyers.
The economy has been the president’s weakest area in polling. A CNN-SSRS survey released last month found 66% of U.S. adults disapprove of Trump’s job performance overall, while 70% disapprove of his handling of the economy.
On air, Tarlov cited those figures, telling her co-hosts that 70% of Americans believe Trump is not focused on lowering costs and does not care about people like them, and that 70% think his business interests drive his political decisions. According to her, Trump has amassed $2.2 billion, and she claimed that Vance’s warnings about fraudsters and criminals were actually a description of his own government.
The $2.2 Billion Disclosure
The figure is based on a 927-page financial disclosure form released in June, which revealed that Trump earned over $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures last year. Of the total, nearly $600 million came from World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm co-founded by him and his sons. All told, the filing listed income of at least $2.2 billion.
Tarlov circled back to the vice president’s phrasing about fraudsters and criminals and predicted voters would head to the polls with that record in mind. Co-host Greg Gutfeld responded to her fraud claims by praising the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), saying the cost-cutting effort was created to root out waste in public spending. DOGE, however, is better known for deep cuts at federal agencies, including the Department of Education.
The Loneliest Seat in Cable News
Tarlov described that same dynamic at length in an episode of “The New Yorker Radio Hour” released August 21, 2026. Talking with host David Remnick, she said she makes the liberal case to an audience that is largely unsympathetic to it, and added that liberal viewers frequently misjudge her conservative colleagues. Her presence on the panel has annoyed Trump, who has called on Fox News to fire her.
“The Five” ranks as the most watched program on cable news, and Tarlov shares its liberal chair with former Rep. Harold Ford Jr., facing off against conservative co-hosts Dana Perino, Gutfeld and Jesse Watters. Her new book, drawn largely from that daily experience, carries the title “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends.” The podcast, a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker, releases new episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays.
How She Landed on the Panel
Tarlov joined “The Five” as a co-host in 2021, rotating with Ford and veteran journalist Geraldo Rivera. The three replaced Juan Williams, the show’s longtime liberal voice, who stayed on as a political analyst for the network.
By the time of a September 29, 2022, profile, the roundtable was averaging 3.4 million viewers a day — the largest audience in cable news — with viewership up 21% over the prior year. Tarlov, then 38, said in an interview at the network’s Manhattan headquarters that large conservative accounts on Twitter had begun engaging with her arguments as part of the debate rather than attacking her appearance, a shift she called both important and preferable. The program, which launched in 2011, was described then as the last cable roundtable still built around genuine ideological conflict, with Tarlov facing right-leaning regulars including Jeanine Pirro, Perino, Gutfeld and Watters.
Four years later, the assignment looks much the same: a single liberal seat on a panel of conservatives, and a live rebuttal of the sitting vice president delivered to the biggest audience in cable news.