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Trump Blames Fox News for Republican Midterm Losses

6 sources · updated 2026-11-04
Left 50% Center 17% Right 33%
3 left · 1 center · 2 right

What happened

On the night of the U.S. congressional midterm elections, President Donald Trump posted a string of messages on Truth Social attacking Fox News as Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, including flipped seats in Texas, South Carolina, and Kansas, and as Republicans lost Senate races in North Carolina and New Hampshire. Trump said he turned off the network during a segment of “The Five” featuring liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov, writing, “I can’t stand Jessica Tarlov’s voice — DUMB AS A ROCK, but it’s the voice that gets me.” He later posted that “FoxNews bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition,” blamed a reported 27 percent year-over-year drop in Fox News ratings on coverage of Democrats, called the network’s polling a “hit job,” and asked why Fox Corp. was donating to Democratic politicians and campaign committees. The previous day, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch had told investors the ratings decline reflected “viewer fatigue” and that viewers were not switching to competing networks. Trump had appeared on Fox’s “Hannity” the night before the election and, according to reports, texted Fox host Greg Gutfeld during election night to complain.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 6 articles

5 of 6 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 5 of 6
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Donald Trump, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 6
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: social media post
Credits another outlet 0 of 6
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 0 of 6
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Nov 3, 23:03 UTC by The Hill, naming its source. First document 6 hours later, from Axios (social media post).
Not counted 0
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Right-leaning coverage never reports that Trump blamed Fox for the Republican losses, so a reader of that account sees an election-night feud over ratings and donations rather than an attempt to name who caused the defeat. Left-leaning coverage at CNBC carries his charge that the network bears responsibility by putting Democratic opposition on the air. His attack on a ratings slide and his accusation that Fox Corp donates to Democratic politicians appear instead in the Daily Caller, which skips the blame for the losses. The same posts are cast in opposite tones. Left-leaning coverage in The Hill says Fox "bears responsibility" for the losses. Right-leaning coverage in the Daily Caller says Trump "rage-posted" against the network. Did booking Democratic guests on Fox cost Republicans any seats?
Bottom line

CNBC ran the post in which Trump blamed Fox for the Republican defeat; the Daily Caller ran the ratings and donations posts and left out that he said the network "bears responsibility."

The Left View
Left-leaning outlets framed the posts as Trump turning on a network he has long championed in order to pin “disastrous” Republican losses on Fox rather than on the results. The Hill led with the personal attack on Tarlov and with his claim that Fox “bears responsibility,” including for putting former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on air “ranting and raving.” CNBC stressed Democratic gains in states usually favorable to Republicans and placed the 27 percent ratings drop in company context: Murdoch blamed overall television fatigue, CNN and MS NOW still had smaller total-day audiences, and Fox Corp. otherwise reported a strong quarter, with advertising revenue up 47 percent. These accounts also cast the episode as part of Trump’s broader pattern of attacking outlets he views as biased, while noting his historically friendlier relationship with Fox than with NBC or ABC.
The Right View
The Daily Caller described Trump as “rage-posting” as early returns came in, while centering his argument that Fox is “AGAINST” him and that its ratings are collapsing for that reason, “not because of me.” It highlighted his charge that the network spends too much time covering “Trump Deranged Dumocrats,” his citation of a CNN poll putting him at 99 percent among Republicans and far above Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln among Republican presidents, and his list of Fox Corp. donations to Hakeem Jeffries, Jamie Raskin, Ted Lieu, Pete Aguilar, the Democratic Congressional and Senatorial campaign committees, and other Democratic groups. Trump warned that “this happened once before, and Fox almost collapsed,” tying the audience slide to the network’s posture toward him rather than to the election itself.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that Trump is scapegoating a longtime media ally for a broad electoral defeat—including Democratic control of both chambers and flips in typically Republican states—while the attack on Tarlov’s voice and Murdoch’s “viewer fatigue” explanation undercut a simple claim that Fox drove the losses. The right’s strongest argument, as carried in Trump’s posts and amplified by the Daily Caller, is that Fox’s choice to platform Democratic voices and Fox Corp.’s donations to Democratic officeholders and campaign committees are concrete decisions that clash with its conservative audience, coinciding with a documented 27 percent ratings drop he says is happening “because they are AGAINST me.” The central unresolved tension is whether those coverage and corporate-giving choices meaningfully contributed to Republican losses, or whether Trump is converting a political repudiation and a cyclical ratings slump into a loyalty test of a network that has not always obliged him.

6 sources

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