Donald Trump Says Newsmax ‘Really Going Up Like A Rocket Ship’

Former President Donald Trump says Newsmax, the conservative news network, is “going up like a rocket ship” after moving ahead of CNN into third place in prime time Friday night. “Your network is doing really well,” Trump told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt in an interview Tuesday evening. “I looked at the numbers,” Trump said, referring to the network’s rise in the Nielsen ratings, “and that’s a fantastic thing for a conservative movement, frankly.”

On Friday, just days after Trump’s appearance in a prime time town hall pushed CNN into first place over longtime leader Fox News Channel, CNN crashed back into fourth place. CNN delivered an average total audience of 335,000 viewers in prime Friday, just behind Newsmax’s 357,000 viewers. Fox News finished first in prime with 1.44 million viewers, and MSNBC was second overall with 1.084 million viewers.

Trump took credit for CNN’s big ratings delivery for the town hall last week, bragging that he gave CNN “Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time. It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!”

Newsmax’s growth has come in the aftermath of Tucker Carlson’s firing at Fox News, leaving a huge gap in the network’s long-dominant prime time lineup. Ratings for Fox News Tonight have been significantly lower than those for Tucker Carlson Tonight, which was regularly the highest-rated show in cable news.

“Fox News is way down in the Ratings,” Trump said recently in a post to his Truth Social platform. “After firing Tucker Carlson and refusing to fight against a VERY Corrupt and Rigged 2020 Presidential Election, which just cost them plenty of money, prestige, and RATINGS, they are a far cry from what they used to be. FoxNews has become the DeSanctimonious Network, but it will never work because he doesn’t have the goods. Without my Endorsement, he was a dead man walking. Even with Fox, he’s already pretty close to that again!”