'Pretenders to the throne': Trump mocks GOP rivals for low debate ratings

Former President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Friday to mock his GOP rivals over the ratings for the first Republican presidential primary debate, hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee.

"The Debate on FoxNews had a hard time with the proverbial RATINGS," wrote Trump, who declined to attend the debate. "It was one of the lowest rated EVER, if not THE LOWEST. It showed that many of those participating are 'second tier' and merely 'pretenders to the throne.' Some of the answers were sooo bad, with delivery even worse."

"The numbers were less than half what I had in 2016, not a good way to start the fight against Crooked Joe Biden, and his Lunatic Thugs," Trump added. "We will not let this happen. MAGA!"

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The primary debate beat some television analysts' predictions for viewership, but ratings were still dramatically down from past debates. Just 12.8 million people tuned in to watch on either Fox or Fox Business, according to Nielsen Media Research, in comparison to the 24 million people who watched the debate in August 2015, where Trump took on the rest of the GOP field and clashed with moderator Megyn Kelly.

Trump declined to attend the debate for a number of reasons, including that he opposed signing the Republican National Committee's pledge to support the eventual winner, which was a requirement for the debate, and partly because he is currently far ahead of any of his rivals — with no sign of losing ground in the first post-debate polling.

Instead, Trump counterprogrammed the debate with a lengthy, rant-filled interview with fired former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which was posted to Carlson's account on X minutes before the debate was scheduled to start.