Trump Blames Fox News for Midterm Losses as Ratings Drop

President Donald Trump shifted his criticism toward Fox News on Tuesday night as Democratic candidates secured control of the House and Senate.

In a series of posts on Truth Social, the president argued that the network he has previously supported bears responsibility for the Republican defeat. He wrote that the channel “bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition.”

Trump pointed to recent audience data to support his claim. He stated that Fox News ratings are “way down (27%!)” because the network spends too much time covering what he called “Trump Deranged Dumocrats.” He suggested that former viewers stopped watching because they understood this dynamic was not about him.

Fox News reported an average of 1.1 million viewers in October. That figure represents a decline of approximately 27% compared to October of the previous year. The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the president's posts.

Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corp., addressed the drop in viewers during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Monday. He attributed the change to “viewer fatigue” rather than a switch to competitors. Murdoch noted that this pattern is expected before a midterm election held during a president's second term.

Murdoch insisted that viewers were not moving to rival channels. “Those viewers are not going to any other news channel. They're not switching to MS NOW or to CNN,” he said. He added that audiences were simply watching less television in general.

Nielsen data cited by Fox shows that MS NOW averaged 588,000 viewers in October, while CNN averaged 402,000. Both figures represented double-digit increases in primetime viewership compared to the same month last year. However, both networks remained smaller than Fox News in total daily average audiences.

Despite the drop in linear television ratings, Fox Corp. posted a strong fiscal first quarter with revenue of $4.57 billion, up 22% year over year. Advertising revenue rose 47%, driven by political spots and the FIFA Men's World Cup broadcast on Fox platforms in June and July.