--- title: Donald Trump Says 'Morning Joe' Is 'Low-Rated.' It's Not description: President Trump regularly levels ratings-based criticism at media outlets, and his feud with MSNBC's Morning Joe this week was no different canonical: https://time.com/4841176/donald-trump-morning-joe-ratings-fact-check/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-30T15:02:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:21:15.939Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Keeps Calling 'Morning Joe' 'Low-Rated.' It's Not og:description: The show's viewer total has set records for MSNBC og:url: https://time.com/4841176/donald-trump-morning-joe-ratings-fact-check/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffa72e1d7c8c894c/6988d41dcf40a8cbb0c4860f/morning-joe-ratings-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "The Americans" Season 5 Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Keeps Calling 'Morning Joe' 'Low-Rated.' It's Not twitter:description: The show's viewer total has set records for MSNBC twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffa72e1d7c8c894c/6988d41dcf40a8cbb0c4860f/morning-joe-ratings-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Keeps Calling _Morning Joe_ 'Low-Rated.' It's Not > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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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=4dacdb03-4d77-4819-b589-ff02a9499d02&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: White House Reiterates Defense of President Trump's Controversial Mika Brzezinski Tweet [Watch (HLS stream): White House Reiterates Defense of President Trump's Controversial Mika Brzezinski Tweet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6HukcMID.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2017-06-29. The White House continued its defense of President Trump following a pair of controversial tweets about Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, which included a widely condemned comment about the latter's appearance._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 30, 2017 3:02 PM UTC The White House continued its defense of President Trump following a pair of controversial tweets about Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, which included a widely condemned comment about the latter's appearance.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 30, 2017 3:02 PM UTC President Donald Trump regularly levels ratings-based criticism at media outlets, and his [feud with MSNBC’s _Morning Joe_](http://time.com/4838899/donald-trump-twitter-morning-joe-mike-brzezinski/) this week was no different. “I heard poorly rated @Morning\_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore),” Trump [said Thursday](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880408582310776832) in a set of tweets, in which he also targeted Mika Brzezinski’s appearance. On Friday, he [followed up](http://time.com/4840993/donald-trump-joe-scarborough-national-inquirer/?xid=homepage) after Brzezinski and her co-host Joe Scarborough [addressed the feud on the air](http://time.com/4840993/donald-trump-joe-scarborough-national-inquirer/?xid=homepage). “Watched low rated @Morning\_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show,” Trump [said](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880771685460344832). But _Morning Joe_ is not low-rated. In the second quarter of 2017, the show reached an average of 997,000 total viewers in the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. time slot, surpassing CNN’s _New Day_ and marking its ninth straight quarter of growth, according to an NBC Universal [press release](http://www.nbcuniversal.com/press-release/msnbc-weekday-prime-ties-1-a18-49-2q17-1st-time-msnbc-tops-quarter-demo) on Monday. The show’s viewer average set a quarterly record for MSNBC in the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. period. And, specifically among viewers aged 25 to 54, _Morning Joe_ had “MSNBC’s highest rating ever” in that time slot. ## Transcript [00:00] Did the president go too far with his tweet in it's deeply [00:03] caution measure? I don't think so, I mean I think the [00:06] president has been attack [ UNKNOWN ] on personal [00:10] accounts by [ UNKNOWN ] on that program and I think he's [00:14] been very clear that when he gets attacked, he is gonna hit [00:17] back. I think the American people elected somebody who's [00:20] tough, who's smart, and who a fighter and that'd Donald [00:22] Trump And I don't think that it's a surprise to anybody that [00:26] he fights fire with fire. The things that this show has [00:30] called him, and not just him but numerous members of his [00:33] staff, including myself and many others, are very [00:38] deeply personal. So to then turn and pretend like This [00:43] approaches I guess it's kind of like we're living [00:47] in the twilight zone. I do this day after day after day and [00:51] then the president responds and defends himself and [00:55] everybody is uphold and blown away. Frankly, [01:00] if this had happened in the previous administration, the type [01:02] of attacks launched on this program, the things they say, [01:06] utterly stupid, personality disorder, mentally ill. Constant [01:10] personal attacks, calling multiple members liars. Liars to [01:14] their faces, while they're sitting on their programs. The rest [01:17] of the media would have said, guys! No way, hold on, but [01:21] nobody does that but the President, he's not going to step [01:24] back, he's showed that and that's exactly what he did [01:27] today. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4841176/donald-trump-morning-joe-ratings-fact-check/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4841176/donald-trump-morning-joe-ratings-fact-check/"},"headline":"President Trump Keeps Calling Morning Joe 'Low-Rated.' 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