President Donald Trump’s strange and self-congratulatory midterm convention in Texas was a ratings dud on the network most likely to be watched by his die-hard supporters: Fox News.
On Wednesday, Fox’s ratings for the first night of Trump’s event pulled in an average of 2.3 million viewers during primetime. During Trump’s speech, it rose to an average of 2.5 million viewers, but that is smaller than the typical audience for the programs that usually run in those time slots, “Hannity” and “Gutfeld!”
The ratings on CNN, which aired some of the speech, also saw its ratings dip more than 100,000 viewers on average from the average in September 2025. MS NOW, which aired very little Trump speech coverage, had 1.1 million viewers, well above last year’s average of 810,000 viewers during primetime.
The ratings stand in stark contrast to Trump’s proclamation on Thursday that the event had “really big numbers” and that the “overall numbers beat the NFL.” While ratings are not yet in for the kickoff of the NFL season, they are extremely likely to be much higher than the anemic numbers for Trump’s event. For example, last year’s kickoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles pulled in well over 12 times the Fox News viewership for Trump’s speech.
Republicans have struggled to get people to show up for Trump’s convention, which, unlike a presidential convention, had no direct bearing on party business or nominees. The party has had to hand out free tickets, and multiple Republicans running for office have avoided the event, in an apparent attempt to keep the unpopular president at arm’s length during election season.
Trump: “Please right your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can’t even breath. That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way – I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell…”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 10, 2026 at 9:32 PM
But Republican lawmakers keeping away from the event have missed a lot. During the first night, they missed being a part of Trump’s attempt to bribe the American public into voting for Republicans this fall. On the second night, they missed out on a cult-style loyalty oath administered by Trump himself, where he half-jokingly implored supporters to “cheat like hell” to win the election.
Trump is an unpopular president leading an unpopular war in the Middle East, pushing unpopular immigration policies hurting families, and promoting unpopular tariffs that are weighing down the economy. It is no wonder that viewers aren’t tuning in to witness party loyalists propping up his ego.
