President Donald Trump’s attempt at state-run TV is not landing with the few viewers who bother to tune in.
Trump TV, a 24-hour YouTube livestream on the existing White House channel, has drawn scathing reviews and suffered comically low viewership—regularly reporting less than 1,000 viewers—just days into its launch.
The Bulwark’s Brendan Hartnett spent six straight hours watching Trump TV and says he walked away with more questions than answers.
“The problem with Trump TV is that it has no purpose,” he said. “It’s simply Trump’s staff trying to fix a problem Trump created—all in an ad hoc way but while trying to give the misimpression that there’s a plan.”
He continued, “But even with news sickos like me watching, Trump can barely get a few thousand people to tune in. Because the product isn’t news, really. It’s political ephemera—the sort of content that arguably isn’t even meant to be watched the first time, let alone replayed later.”
Newsweek’s Daniel Orton and Amanda Castro left with a similar impression after spending a day watching the MAGA propaganda network.
“After spending much of the day watching it, I found something less polished than its branding suggests,” they wrote. “In practice, it functions more like a continuously shuffled White House playlist, mixing archived speeches, policy announcements, promotional films and appearances by administration officials. There are no anchors, interviews or reporters examining the claims being made. Often, there was little on screen to tell viewers when an event happened or why it was selected.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Daily Beast tuned into the streaming channel’s launch on Monday, when it peaked at about 8,500 viewers as Trump escalated his long-running feud with the media by banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. By comparison, Fox News’ The Five averaged 3.28 million total viewers per episode in August.
Trump TV’s viewers plummeted to as low as 427 viewers early Wednesday morning—and its lack of real programming makes it easy to see why. The channel mainly plays reruns of Trump’s previous engagements, such as Trump’s dinner with Britain’s King Charles and various years-old campaign rallies that hold essentially no relevance today.
“Watch the Trump Administration’s biggest moments all in one place,” the stream’s YouTube description reads.
There appear to be as many critics of the network as actual viewers.
“First, Trump banned independent news from the White House. Now, he’s launching what is quite literally state-run TV to try drowning out the fact that he and his corrupt administration are failing the American people,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted to X. “This is truly autocratic behavior from a failed president.”
“Days ago, Trump banned CNN, MSNOW and many others from the White House. Today, he’s announced State-Run Television. It’s official, we live in North Korea,” liberal commentator Dean Withers also wrote on X.
“So, state-run media,” pro-democracy organization The Lincoln Project said of Trump TV. “Donald Trump is the communist.”
