Donald Trump is obsessed with television ratings. This was quite clear then he was the host of The Apprentice when he frequently exaggerated the size of the show’s audience.
Trump would also use ratings to attack TV journalists who were critical of his presidency. Anyone who wasn’t on board with the MAGA movement was a low ratings failure.
On Monday night, Trump rewarded the Newsmax network for their support with a prime-time interview. It did not go over well and the spot was a ratings bomb. In a column for the Washington Post, Philip Bump writes that the drop in Trump interest could spell the beginning of the end for his political power.
Criticizing the 45th president for rehashing his same line of grievances, the columnist notes, “There’s still an audience for this, of course. There is still a large group of people eager to hear what he has to say, people who would have come across his Newsmax appearance with the same giddiness as Nelson Muntz stumbling upon an Andy Williams performance.”
Bump continues, “The former president still holds out hope that he will be a powerful force in American politics and culture moving forward. In one of the mostly ignored news releases that have come to replace his beloved tweets, Trump this week promised his supporters that “the best is yet to come!” We can all hope that it is, but it seems increasingly unlikely that Trump will be at the center of events should that come to pass.”
You can read Bump’s column in its entirety here
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
