Trump attributes GOP midterm defeats to Fox News coverage
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
President Donald Trump blamed Fox News for the Republican losses in the recent midterm elections, citing the network's ratings decline and alleged focus on Democratic opponents.
President Donald Trump used his Truth Social platform on Tuesday to criticize Fox News, saying the network bears responsibility for the Republican losses in the midterm elections. He argued that the channel’s coverage of Democratic opponents has driven viewers away, noting a reported 27% drop in Fox News ratings for October.
Fox News did not immediately comment on Trump’s statements. The network’s October average viewership was reported at 1.1 million, down about 27% from the same month a year earlier. Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch attributed the decline to "viewer fatigue" ahead of a midterm election with a second-term president, adding that the audience was not shifting to competitors such as MS NOW or CNN.
MS NOW and CNN both posted double-digit gains in primetime viewership for October compared with a year earlier, though their total-day audiences remained smaller than Fox News’s. Nielsen data cited by Fox showed MS NOW averaging 588,000 viewers and CNN 402,000 in October.
Despite the viewership dip, Fox Corp. reported a strong fiscal first quarter, describing it as an "outstanding start to fiscal 2027." Revenue rose 22% year over year to $4.57 billion, driven by a 47% increase in advertising revenue, which Murdoch linked to robust political advertising and coverage of the FIFA Men’s World Cup.
Trump, who has frequently criticized media outlets he perceives as biased, has generally maintained a more amicable relationship with Fox News, appearing on the network’s "Hannity" program shortly before the election.