Donald Trump has appeared to take a subtle dig at Fox News executives, by noting that their most-watched programs are those that are depict him in a favorable light.
The President made the observation in a tweet posted on Saturday morning, in which he also congratulated his friend Sean Hannity for taking the top-spot in the August cable news ratings.
‘Has anyone noticed that the top shows on @foxnews and cable ratings are those that are Fair (or great) to your favorite President, me! Congratulations to @seanhannity for being the number one show on Cable Television!’ the Commander-in-chief wrote.
The tweet comes after ratings-obsessed Trump has repeatedly hit out at the network in recent weeks by claiming that several of its programs and guests had been hyper-critical of him.
President Trump has congratulated his friend Sean Hannity for taking the top-spot in the August cable news ratings. The pair are pictured together in 2018
Trump’s observation, which was shared on Twitter, seemed to be a dig at Fox execs for allowing programs and presenters critical of him to be allowed on the network
On Wednesday, AdWeek reported that Hannity’s program, The Hannity Report, averaged a whopping 3.27 million total viewers per episode in August – a number up 6% from the same month last year.
Hannity – who once appeared on stage at a Trump rally – frequently uses his program to publicly voice his support for the President.
Meanwhile, the second and third highest-rated shows of the month are also ones that often defend the President in light of the harsh criticism he receives from much of the media.
Tucker Carlson Tonight took out the number two spot, averaging 3.11 million viewers – a staggering 22% increase from the same time last year.
Meanwhile The Ingraham Angle, presented by Laura Ingraham, came in third with a nightly average of 2.61 million total viewers.
Meanwhile, Trump’s much-maligned CNN had no programs make the top 20.
Cuomo Prime Time, hosted by Chris Cuomo, came in 22nd place, with an average viewership of 1.1 million.
Pro-Trump: Tucker Carlson Tonight took out the number two spot, averaging 3.11 million viewers – a staggering 22% increase from the same time last year
Staunch supporter: Trump fan y Laura Ingraham came in third with a nightly average of 2.61 million total viewers
Trump recently blasted Fox, claiming they were straying from their conservative audience base and were being too soft of Democrats.
‘Just watched @FoxNews heavily promoting the Democrats through their DNC Communications Director, spewing out whatever she wanted with zero pushback by anchor, @SandraSmithFox. Terrible considering that Fox couldn’t even land a debate, the Dems give them NOTHING!’ the President tweeted last week.
‘@CNN & @MSNBC are all in for the Open Border Socialists (or beyond). Fox hires “give Hillary the questions” @donnabrazile , Juan Williams and low ratings Shep Smith. HOPELESS & CLUELESS! They should go all the way LEFT and I will still find a way to Win – That’s what I do, Win. Too Bad! I don’t want to Win for myself, I only want to Win for the people,’ he continued.
‘The New @FoxNews is letting millions of GREAT people down! We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!’
Trump launched a Twitter salvo at the cable news network that has been kindest to him
The president has also been openly hostile to afternoon anchor Shepard Smith, one of only a few Fox News personalities who is reliably critical of him
Fox’s senior political analyst Brit Hume fired back in a tweet: ‘Fox News isn’t supposed to work for you.’
Meanwhile, Trump blasted Fox New’s Shepard Smith earlier this month for his low-rated program.
Smith has been one of the Fox stars increasingly critical of the President’s Administration.
At the time, Trump said he would rather watch ‘fake news CNN,’ and suggested that he sometimes switches the channel to the far-right One America News Network instead.
A week later, Trump came out behind all of his top-tier Democratic challengers in a Fox News poll. Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris all beat him in hypothetical head-to-head matchups, an outcome that White House aides said infuriated the president behind the scenes.
Trump has suggested several times that the far-right One America News Network (OANN) is most hospitable for his supporters than Fox