Nicolai Haugsted
Trump attacks Morning Joe’s ratings only for the hosts to fact-check him live on air minutes later.
Donald Trump apparently did not enjoy his Monday morning television viewing.
The president has never been shy about reviewing the journalists, networks and programs appearing on his screen, and Morning Joe received his latest verdict while its hosts were still broadcasting.
Trump announced on Truth Social that Joe Scarborough’s program had been “cut way back,” dismissed it as boring and predicted it would soon be “dead.”
There was only one slight inconvenience.
Scarborough and his colleagues were very much alive, on television and ready to respond.
“Joe Scarborough’s show has been cut way back, and will soon be ‘dead!'” Trump wrote.
“Too predictable and boring! REALLY BAD RATINGS, just like the rest of MSNOW (MSDNC!).”
The post appeared shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, following another Trump attack on HBO host Bill Maher.
Trump gets a live review of his review
Morning Joe had just finished an interview with Monty Python co-founder Eric Idle when Jonathan Lemire returned from a commercial break with some fresh material.
“So I follow President Trump on Truth Social so you don’t have to,” Lemire said live on air.
He then read Trump’s post aloud to the rest of the panel.
“Joe Scarborough’s show has been cut way back and will soon be dead,” Lemire quoted before noting Trump’s choice of punctuation.
“He puts that in quotes.”
Scarborough seemed puzzled.
“What does that mean?”
Lemire continued with Trump’s description of the program as “too predictable and boring” before joking that perhaps the president had simply grown tired of the Monty Python interview.
Scarborough was unconvinced.
“I didn’t think it was boring,” he said.
“No, I thought it was nice,” Lemire replied.
The ratings claim runs into some numbers
Trump reserved capital letters for his assessment of the show’s audience.
“REALLY BAD RATINGS,” he wrote.
Available viewing figures paint a rather less terminal picture.
Morning Joe averaged 733,000 viewers in August, representing a 27 percent increase from the same month a year earlier, according to Nielsen figures reported by Mediaite. The program also remained the highest-rated cable-news morning show in the Washington, D.C. market.
Earlier figures released by MS NOW’s parent company showed Morning Joe averaging 784,000 viewers during the first quarter of 2026, up 15 percent year over year. Its audience among viewers aged 25 to 54 increased 40 percent over the same period.
Network-issued ratings naturally come with a promotional interest attached, but independent reporting on the latest Nielsen figures similarly contradicts Trump’s suggestion that the program is suffering catastrophic audience losses.
Scarborough was happy to bring up the Washington numbers himself.
“Number one cable show in the morning in Washington, D.C., right where you are, Mr. President,” he said.
Then came some unsolicited viewing advice.
Mika Brzezinski offers the easiest solution
Mika Brzezinski identified a fairly obvious escape route for a president apparently unhappy with the program appearing on his television.
“You don’t have to watch,” she said.
Scarborough agreed.
“Exactly.”
He then reminded Trump that this was apparently not the first time he had recommended changing the channel.
“But you don’t have to — in fact, I have asked you not to watch,” Scarborough said.
“I specifically said: ‘Please Mr. President, don’t watch our show.'”
Scarborough’s concern extended beyond television preferences.
“It’s not good for you and it’s not good for America.”
His final recommendation was considerably less diplomatic.
“Just, like, watch channels where they say s—t that you like,” Scarborough said.
