It's no secret US president Donald Trump watches a lot of late night cable TV.
Now The Donald has taken to social media to blast what he calls “fake news,” this time directing his ire at MSNBC and celebrating the imminent cancellation of host Joy Reid after years of hosting The Reid Out.
The present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was probably the happiest to see her go.
Posting on Truth Social late Sunday, Trump claimed that MSNBC, which he derisively calls “MSDNC,” is “nothing more than an illegal arm of the Democratic Party” and should be forced to pay “vast sums of money” for its alleged role in damaging the country.
He reserved particular scorn for Reid, calling her a “mentally obnoxious racist” and stating that she should have been fired long ago due to low ratings.
The attack underscores Trump’s ongoing fixation with television ratings, a preoccupation that has persisted since his days hosting The Apprentice — also airing on NBC — which itself suffered a decline before its own cancellation in 2017 with Arnold Schwarzenegger as host amid a contract dispute with owner Brian Roberts.
“Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast,’ Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenge NBC and MSDNC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid,” Trump wrote.
“Based on her (Reid's) ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there.”
Trump extended his criticism to other MSNBC figures, including Rachel Maddow, Alex Wagner and Al Sharpton, whom he labeled a “LOW IQ Con Man” with “perhaps the lowest TV ratings in the history of television.”
Despite his political exit from The Apprentice in 2016, Trump remains preoccupied with television ratings — a fixation that defined both his presidential terms.
He frequently boasted about viewership numbers for White House press briefings and events while disparaging media outlets that reported critically on his administration. His fascination with television dates back to his time as host of The Apprentice, which saw dwindling ratings before NBC eventually pulled the plug.
Reid, a longtime Trump critic and prominent MSNBC voice since 2011, has faced declining ratings, with reports indicating that her show, The ReidOut, lost nearly half its viewers by December. The final episode is set to air this week.
Meanwhile, NBC News is undergoing broader changes, with longtime anchor Lester Holt announcing that he will step down from NBC Nightly News this summer after a decade at the helm. He will transition into a full-time role at Dateline.
As Trump continues to rail against the media, his obsession with television remains as evident as ever, reinforcing a pattern of grievances against networks he believes have wronged him.
His latest outburst is a reminder that, for Trump, ratings and media coverage have always been deeply personal matters — far beyond mere political rhetoric.