--- 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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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=24cff4a8-bd77-4cd7-9f24-ba4c188d2740&cr=time-nl-network-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  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 Did the president go too far with his tweet in it's deeply caution measure? I don't think so, I mean I think the president has been attack [ UNKNOWN ] on personal accounts by [ UNKNOWN ] on that program and I think he's been very clear that when he gets attacked, he is gonna hit back. I think the American people elected somebody who's tough, who's smart, and who a fighter and that'd Donald Trump And I don't think that it's a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire. The things that this show has called him, and not just him but numerous members of his staff, including myself and many others, are very deeply personal. So to then turn and pretend like This approaches I guess it's kind of like we're living in the twilight zone. I do this day after day after day and then the president responds and defends himself and everybody is uphold and blown away. Frankly, if this had happened in the previous administration, the type of attacks launched on this program, the things they say, utterly stupid, personality disorder, mentally ill. Constant personal attacks, calling multiple members liars. Liars to their faces, while they're sitting on their programs. The rest of the media would have said, guys! No way, hold on, but nobody does that but the President, he's not going to step back, he's showed that and that's exactly what he did 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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