--- title: Donald Trump Argues That He Does Not Watch Much Television description: President Trump pushed back against a report that he watches four hours of television a day. canonical: https://time.com/5058461/donald-trump-television-tv-watching/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-11T15:44:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:41:45.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Denied That He Watches Four Hours of TV a Day og:description: He pushed back on a report that he's always in front of the tube og:url: https://time.com/5058461/donald-trump-television-tv-watching/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt966b750b9c4407aa/6988f48d22fb857601e24005/gettyimages-683492496.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on a television news show in the West Wing of the White House, on May 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Denied That He Watches Four Hours of TV a Day twitter:description: He pushed back on a report that he's always in front of the tube twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt966b750b9c4407aa/6988f48d22fb857601e24005/gettyimages-683492496.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Took to Twitter to Deny He Watches a Lot of TV > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=762fcd2a-c60d-4ed0-9bee-a1199b33369e&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Continues to Push Conspiracy Theories [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Continues to Push Conspiracy Theories](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wXkEaMac.m3u8) (3:53)  _Published 2017-12-05. Donald Trump built his political career on a conspiracy theory: The false claim that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:41 PM UTCPublished: Dec 11, 2017 3:44 PM UTC Donald Trump built his political career on a conspiracy theory: The false claim that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:41 PM UTCPublished: Dec 11, 2017 3:44 PM UTC President Trump argued that he does not watch a lot of television Monday. Responding to a [New York _Times_ report](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/us/politics/donald-trump-president.html?%5Fr=0) which said he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to start watching cable news and can watch least four hours of television a day, often with the sound muted, Trump tweeted that the story was “false.” “Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes, that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day,” he tweeted. “Wrong!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940223974985871360) The report, which was based on interviews with 60 advisers, associates, friends and members of Congress, was not the first one to say that Trump watches TV. An [Axios report from January](https://www.axios.com/trump-101-what-he-reads-and-watches-2210510272.html) broke down a media diet that included “Morning Joe,” “Fox and Friends,” CNN and the Sunday news shows. In [an exclusive interview with TIME](http://time.com/donald-trump-after-hours/) in May, Trump showed off a new 60-plus-inch flat-screen television installed at the White House which allows him to scroll through news clips from earlier in the day. Trump also [regularly responds](https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/this-guy-just-proved-that-trump-basically-live-twe.html) to interviews and news presented on morning cable shows on Twitter. In response to a fact-checking question submitted by the New York _Times_ for the same story earlier in November, Trump [told reporters](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/359897-trump-i-dont-watch-much-television-primarily-because-of-documents) aboard Air Force One en route to Asia that he does “not watch much television.” “Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television,” he said. “People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television — people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources.” “But I don’t get to watch much television,” he added. “Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot.” During the trip, Trump also complained that he was forced to watch CNN because he was overseas. > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/930748627642998784) ## Transcript [00:01] " Donald Trump built his political career on a [00:03] conspiracy theory: the idea that President Obama was [00:07] not born in the United States ." [ MUSIC ] [00:16] " Trump repeatedly pushed the idea in interviews and [00:18] on social media, long after it was disproved ." Why [00:21] doesn't he show his birth certificate. And I have my [00:23] own theory on Obama. It's one of the greatest scams in [00:26] the history of politics. But it's not the only conspiracy [00:28] theory he's indulged, on a campaign trail and in the [00:31] White House he's toyed with some outlandish ideas. [00:33] That Ted Cruz's father might be involved in the [00:36] Kennedy assassination. His father ws with Lee Harvey [00:39] Oslwald what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oslwald [00:42] Right. Shortly, before the deaths, before the shooting. [00:45] Did anybody ever deny that it was the father? They're [00:48] not saying," that wasn't really my father ." It's a little [00:50] hard to do, cuz it looks like him. That Marco Rubio [00:52] may not be elligible to run for president, an argument [00:55] no contstitutional scholar supported. You're really not [00:58] sure that Marco Rubio is elligible Eligible to run for [01:00] president. I don't know. I really, I've never looked at it [01:03] George. Honestly, I've never looked at it. Somebody [01:05] said he's not and I retweeted it. That routine vaccation [01:09] cause autism a theory scientests have long debunked. [01:11] The child, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine [01:15] and came back, and, a week a later got a tremendous [01:18] fever, got very very sick, now is autisic. We have [01:22] extremely. [ MUSIC ] Well documented proof that [01:26] there's no autism associated with vaccinations. That [01:29] supreme court justice Anton and Scalia might have [01:31] been murdered. Scalia was he murdered? I know it's [01:33] pretty brutal to say that. It's a horrible topic but they [01:37] say they found the pillow on his face, which is a pretty [01:40] unual place to find a pillow. I can't tell you what, I [01:44] can't give you an answer. That Muslims in New Jersey [01:47] cheered after 9 / 11. A claim no one has ever [01:49] substantiated. And I watched in Jersey City, New [01:52] Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people [01:57] were cheering. And the other side of New Jersey where [01:59] you have large Arab populations, they were cheering [02:02] as the World Trade Center came down. That millions of [02:04] Americans voted illegally in 2016. Sixteen, a claim with [02:08] no factual support. Does the president believe that [02:10] millions voted illegally in this election? He continues to [02:13] maintain that belief based on studies and evidence [02:15] that people have presented to him. What evidence do [02:17] you have? I, I, as I said, I think the president has [02:20] believed that for a while based on studies and [02:22] information he has. That Climate Change is a hoax. All [02:23] of this with the global warming and the that a [02:27] lot of it's a hoax. It's a hoax. I mean it's a money [02:29] making industry okay? A Sussian meddling in the 2016 [02:32] election is a hoax. [ MUSIC ] And [02:44] according to a recent New York Times report that the [02:46] Acess hollywood viideo of him admitting to grabbing [02:48] women's genital Is a hoax even though he apologized [02:52] for it when it came out. I said it, I was wrong, and I [02:56] apologize. It's not clear how much Trump really [02:58] believes these ideas. He's backed down from some in [03:01] the past. Barack Obama was born in [03:05] the United States. Period. Only to indulge them again [03:08] later. [ MUSIC ] Some of the theories have helped [03:11] Trump politically by tearing down rivals or creating [03:13] doubt about policies he opposes. Others have hurt [03:16] him, as polls show voters increasingly question his [03:19] judgment. But one thing is clear, Donald Trump [03:23] is not going to stop talking about conspiracy theories. 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