President Trump on Saturday drew a connection between cable TV shows that provide glowing coverage of his administration and receiving higher ratings.
Mr. Trump took to Twitter to laud prime-time Fox News host Sean Hannity after taking swings throughout the week at the conservative commentator’s employer and colleagues.
“Has anyone noticed that the top shows on @foxnews and cable ratings are those that are Fair (or great) to your favorite President, me! Congratulations to @seanhannity for being the number one show on Cable Television,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
Television ratings released this week by Nielsen placed Fox News as the top cable network in terms of primetime viewers, with Mr. Hannity’s program ranking first in its time slot for the fifth month in a row.
Usually supportive of the right-leaning TV network, Mr. Trump repeatedly attacked Fox News and several of its host this week on social media and during interviews.
“We have to start looking for a new News Outlet,” Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday. “Fox isn’t working for us anymore!”
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“I’m not happy with Fox,” the president added during an interview Thursday, making an exception to note that several hosts of popular, pro-Trump opinion programs aired by the network — namely Mr. Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson — have been “really good” for him.
Mr. Trump’s tweets about Fox were met with pushback from network personalities like Brit Hume and Neil Cavuto.
“I think the president watches Fox. I also think he’s getting sick of Fox, which is weird because I think he gets pretty fair coverage on Fox, but the president making clear to fact-check him is to be all but dead to him and his legion of supporters, who let me know, in no uncertain terms, I am either with him totally or I am a never-Trumper fully,” said Mr. Cavuto in the closing segment of his Thursday afternoon program.
Mr. Hannity, 57, has unabashedly praised Mr. Trump on-air and has previously claimed to be the president’s biggest fan at Fox News.
“I am the only one that is as strongly supportive of the president, of anyone else at Fox. I think that’s a fair statement,” Mr. Hannity said in 2017.
“Hannity” was the most-watched program on cable news in August, followed in second and third place by “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “The Ingraham Angle,” respectively, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.
Recent polling indicates Americans have varying opinions about the network’s legitimacy, however. The results of a survey released Wednesday ranked Fox News first as being both the most and least trusted TV news or commentary source among U.S. voters surveyed recently.
A study released in May by Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, found that Mr. Trump granted 11 out of 12 of his previous interviews to either Fox News of Fox Business hosts.
More recently, Mr. Trump said Thursday that he thought he would be considered “disloyal” by his supporters if he sat down for an interview with the network’s top cable news competitor, CNN.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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