Trump spent Sunday morning watching Fox News, decided the network was not showing enough of his recent rallies and warned it could end up with CNN-level ratings if it kept this up.
Donald Trump woke up Sunday, turned on Fox News and discovered a problem: not enough Donald Trump.
In a lengthy Truth Social post, the president blasted Fox & Friends for not giving enough attention to his rally in Ohio the night before or to recent events in Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma. Trump described the rallies as sold out, overflowing and politically important, then asked the question every television executive loves to see from the president of the United States: “Who makes these decisions at FoxNews?”
Trump said viewers wanted to see the rallies and warned that they would stop watching Fox if the network did not give MAGA events more airtime. He said Fox could eventually end up with ratings like CNN or MS NOW, both frequent targets of his media attacks.
The complaint is notable because Trump remains one of Fox’s most famous viewers and one of its most frequent political guests. He regularly references the network’s programming, reacts to individual hosts and occasionally appears by phone. His media relationship with Fox is less boycott than extremely emotional subscription renewal.
TheWrap reported that Trump’s post went up around 9:11 a.m. Sunday, roughly three hours into Fox & Friends Weekend. Trump said he was watching the channel while posting and complained that the program had focused too much on Democrats and not enough on what he called the hottest political rallies in the country.
He also singled out liberal Fox commentator Jessica Tarlov, saying viewers did not want people like her “forced down MAGA’S throats.” Tarlov has become a recurring target for Trump because she often provides the dissenting voice on Fox’s panel shows.
Trump’s argument was not that Fox covered the Ohio rally inaccurately. It was that the network did not cover it enough. That is an important distinction because it turns the complaint from ordinary media criticism into something closer to a programming note from a very invested viewer who also happens to command the federal executive branch.
The president also brought up former Fox host Maria Bartiromo, claiming she had been fired because she wanted to cover him more aggressively. Fox has not endorsed Trump’s account of why Bartiromo left the network.
The entire post reads like a reminder that Trump’s relationship with conservative media has always been transactional. When Fox amplifies him, he praises its ratings and hosts. When the network runs criticism, cuts away from a rally or puts a Democrat on screen, he can turn on it almost instantly.
That push-pull has existed since his first presidency. Trump has repeatedly accused Fox of drifting left, even while appearing on the network and citing it as evidence when coverage helps him. Fox, meanwhile, benefits enormously from the attention his political movement generates while maintaining a lineup that is not uniformly loyal to him.
The current timing makes the fight more politically sensitive. Republicans are approaching the midterms, and Trump is campaigning heavily around the country. He wants those events to dominate conservative media because the rallies are part voter mobilization, part television spectacle and part evidence for his argument that Republican enthusiasm remains strong.
Fox has its own incentives. A cable network cannot simply air every presidential rally in full because the president wants it to, especially when it has other news, guests and programming obligations. That may be the boring television answer. It is also probably not the answer Trump wanted while watching Sunday morning.
The funny part is that his complaint itself guaranteed more coverage of the rally. A rally Fox allegedly did not discuss enough became a national media story because Trump posted about Fox not discussing it enough. Somewhere, a booking producer just learned a new way to fill a segment.
For now, there is no real breakup. Trump has threatened Fox before and continued watching. Fox has endured the criticism before and continued booking Trump allies. The relationship is less divorce than one of those couples who announce they are finished every Thanksgiving and arrive together at Christmas.
The question is whether Trump’s repeated pressure changes Fox’s editorial decisions — or whether the network has simply accepted that occasionally being yelled at by its most powerful viewer is part of the business model.
