The White House's "Trump TV," which was supposed to fill the information gap after President Donald Trump banned Politico, CNN and MS NOW, has already fallen on hard times, with viewership sometimes sitting at fewer than 100 MAGA fans watching.
According to an analysis by the Daily Beast, Trump TV has little in the way of content that appeals to even the most rabid MAGA fans — and the numbers reflect that.
Earlier this month, the 80-year-old president went scorched-earth on the media, banning the three outlets from the White House over what he called "fake news." As part of "his tantrum," he launched Trump TV, billed as an "essential" one-stop shop for all things Trump.
However, according to the Beast's Leigh Kimmins, the channel is actually just a 24-hour stream on the White House's YouTube account and mostly airs "reruns of old speeches and engagements," and Trump fans are tuning out.
"It opened to highs of 8,500 viewers but has since nosedived to a genuinely embarrassing record," Kimmins wrote, adding that at 2 a.m. Eastern, the self-declared "king of ratings" was pulling in fewer than 100 viewers — 91, to be exact.
"To put that in context, more people can fit in Trump’s older Air Force One jet," the Beast report notes before adding, "The Boeing VC-25 has room for 71 passengers and 30 crew. In fact, if all White House staff watched the stream, Trump would have more than four times his current viewership. An annual report in July stated that the White House had 411 employees."
The flop was compounded when Trump TV got upstaged by an accidental Instagram livestream from former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She started streaming Sunday while lying in bed with her 5-month-old daughter.
"Just accidentally went live while trying to edit a reel LOL," she wrote afterward, adding, "Sorry to those who got excited... but maybe I should go live soon and I can answer some questions from you guys?! For now, we are going to take our Sunday nap. Byeee!"
She drew more than 1,000 viewers, far eclipsing Trump TV's numbers — just as "a livestream of a pedicure" drew over 2,000 viewers the week before.