Trump-bashing late-night host Seth Meyers has exposed the president’s fantastical claims about his disastrous midterm convention ratings.
Meyers couldn’t believe the numbers Donald Trump offered to reporters after the two-day event in Dallas last month, dubbed “Trump-a-Palooza.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won a Republican Senate primary with Trump’s backing but could lose the seat to Democrat James Talarico, privately complained to conservative donors and lobbyists that it had done more harm than good to local candidates.
Leaked audio published from a private gathering revealed Paxton admitting that “when we did that convention—it dropped our numbers,” adding, “Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”
His senior adviser Nick Maddux dismissed the leaked recording, but Meyers highlighted the private panic brewing inside the party during his broadcast, pointing out how the president shrugged off the internal revolt with staggering mathematical fabrications.
“So even Trump’s lackey in Texas is complaining about him, but don’t worry, Trump isn’t fazed by the criticism from his own party,” Meyers said. “In fact, he’s very proud, very proud of how successful his midterm convention was.”
When confronted by reporters about Paxton’s comments, Trump ignored the dismal reviews and offered up a mind-boggling viewership stat instead.
“Well, I haven’t heard that, but I can tell you that the convention was amazing,” Trump claimed. “As you probably know, we had 107 million views. Think of this. We had over 100 million views, I think 107. The NFL had 25 million views. So we had four times what the NFL did.”
Meyers played along, then completely tore the numbers apart. “Now, I have to admit when I heard that number, I thought he was lying, but we checked. It turns out Trump is right,” Meyers joked. “When you aggregate total views across linear and digital platforms and include delayed viewing statistics across the seven-day ratings window, Trump really did get an average of 107 million views. And of course he’s lying! Does that number sound real to anyone?! 107 million. You know where he got that number? The automated streaming system, a.k.a. his a--.”
The comedian pointed out that actual television and streaming audiences for the event hovered around a paltry 3.3 million—a tiny fraction of standard sports viewership.
“It should go without saying that the NFL crushed Trump’s convention,” Meyers scoffed. “The only thing that Trump has in common with an NFL game is that his doctors keep putting him through the concussion protocol.”
Launching into a mock medical exam, Meyers quipped, “Hey, hey Mr. President, can we get you back in the tent for a second? Just real quick, tell us which one of these is a camel.”
Meyers noted that top YouTube clips of Trump’s night-one speech struggled to reach even hundreds of thousands of views. “Do you know who has more views than that?” Meyers asked. “A video called ‘17 Minutes of People Falling’.”
It comes after event organizers resorted to sending late text messages offering “FREE TICKETS” to fill venue rows. Despite promising all adult Americans a $5,000 dividend if Republicans hold both houses of Congress, polling aggregators like Nate Silver and FiftyPlusOne show Democrats expanding their margin on the generic ballot, sowing further doubt around Trump’s imaginary ratings.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
