President Donald Trump has raged at a morning TV news host Joe Scarborough in an ironic meltdown.
The 80-year-old president logged onto Truth Social early Monday to take the politician-turned-host to task for his constant critiques of Trump.
“Joe Scarborough’s show has been cut way back, and will soon be ‘dead!’ Too predictable and boring! REALLY BAD RATINGS, just like the rest of MSNOW (MSDNC!)” he said of the Morning Joe host and his titular program.
Trump’s tantrum was ironic given that Morning Joe, according to August figures, averaged 733,000 total viewers. Trump suggested the show was on the wane, but it has enjoyed a 27 percent year-over-year increase and is the highest-rated morning show in the Washington, D.C., market.
It was extra ironic as “Trump TV,” the president’s feeble answer to network news heavyweights, struggles badly. He launched the “essential” channel, which is just a 24-hour feed of old speeches and engagements, after he booted MS NOW, Politico, and CNN from the White House, but it has a stunningly meager viewership.
In fact, earlier on Monday, it was down to just 179 viewers, its lowest number yet. It was even trumped by an Instagram Live stream that Karoline Leavitt admitted she launched accidentally.
Morning Joe’s hosts were in no mood to take Trump’s flak. Indeed, just minutes after the president posted the missive, co-host Jonathan Lemire responded, “I follow President Trump on Truth Social, so you don’t have to. [Just now] he writes this about us, ‘Joe Scarborough’s show has been cut way back and will soon be dead.’ He puts that in quotes.”
“What does that mean?” Scarborough asked.
“Goes on to say, ‘too predictable and boring,’ so maybe he’s tired of Monty Python, I guess,” Lemire added, referencing his Monday morning interview with Monty Python icon Eric Idle.
“I didn’t think it was boring,” Scarborough joked.
“No, I thought it was nice,” Lemire replied. “He goes on to say, ‘really bad ratings’—all capital letters, ‘just like the rest of MS NOW,’ which he puts as ‘MS DNC,’ and he signs it off as ‘President DJT.’”
“You don’t have to watch,“ co-host Mika Brzezinski advised the president, quipping, “go to the curvy couch,” a reference to Fox & Friends.
“Exactly, Scarborough added. ”But number one, number one cable show in the morning in Washington, D.C., right where you are, Mr. President. But you don’t have to—in fact, I have asked you not to watch. I specifically said: ‘Please, Mr. President, don’t watch our show.’ It’s not good for you, and it’s not good for America.”
“Just, like, watch channels where they say s--t that you like,” he suggested.
Targeting Bill Maher’s ratings in a separate post, presumably for his show Real Time with Bill Maher, Trump ranted, “Bill Maher’s ratings are so low that it is hard to believe his show can continue. In many ways it’s SAD because, in actuality, I like him. Republicans should stop using him as a sounding board, however. It makes them look sooo weak and foolish!”
