President Donald Trump turned on Fox News Tuesday night in a series of posts on Truth Social as Democratic victories arrived in historic midterm elections.
Trump blamed the network, which he has long defended, for Republican losses, saying in a message on his social network that he “bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and systematically attacking the Democratic opposition.”
Democrats took control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, flipping seats in states usually favorable to Republicans, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
Trump also pointed to Fox’s recent ratings as evidence of the channel’s decline.
“FoxNews ratings are down (27%!) because they spend too much time covering deranged Trump Democrats! All those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it. It’s them, not me,” he posted.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a press release last week, Fox News reported an average audience of 1.1 million viewers for the month of October, down about 27% from the same month the previous year.
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch noted the decline during the company’s quarterly earnings call Monday, citing “viewer fatigue.”
However, Murdoch said such a shift was expected heading into a midterm election with a president serving a second term and said it was not the result of viewers turning to coverage of the competitors.
“These viewers don’t turn to any other news channel. They don’t turn to MS NOW or CNN,” he said. “They’re just tired and watching a little less TV in general.”
Slopebelonging to MS NOW and Sky DanceCNN-owned CNN both reported that prime-time viewership increased by double digits in October compared to the year-ago period. However, both networks still had lower average daily audiences than Fox News.
MS NOW averaged 588,000 viewers in October all day, and CNN had 402,000, according to Nielsen data cited by Fox.
Despite Fox News’ year-over-year audience decline, the company reported an otherwise strong quarter in what Murdoch called an “exceptional start to fiscal 2027.”
Fox Corp., which includes linear television networks as well as entertainment and sports assets and a streaming business, reported revenue for its fiscal first quarter of $4.57 billion, up 22% year over year.
The company highlighted the strength of its advertising revenue, which grew 47%, supported by strong political advertising and the FIFA Men’s World Cup, which aired in part on Fox platforms in June and July.
Trump frequently criticizes media companies, particularly broadcasters he views as biased against him. While he repeatedly targets NBC and DisneyABC-owned ABC President has a much friendlier relationship with Fox and its networks.
Trump appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” Monday night before the election.
Disclosure: CNBC and MS NOW are divisions of Versant Media.
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