President Donald Trump loves to brag about TV ratings and occasionally spars with the NFL. This week, he did both, but his claims did not stand up to scrutiny.
The president’s party hosted a two-day midterm convention in Dallas last week. Those two days also marked the first two nights of the NFL season, with games played Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Trump spoke both nights of the convention, and he claimed that his speech would outrate the game telecasts.
“The overall numbers beat the NFL,” Trump claimed on Truth Social, at a time before any ratings were available.
Trump:
“The Republican Midterm Convention last night, in Dallas, was a major, sold out hit…The overall numbers beat the NFL. The Arena, which was really nice, beat its own attendance records. The place was packed! There were thousands of people outside…” https://t.co/L04pk84ZLX pic.twitter.com/xRXVFyHCu2
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 10, 2026
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
As CNN reported, this did not happen.
“The NFL game drew more than 25 million viewers. Trump’s speech reached about 3 million viewers,” CNN said, referring specifically to the Wednesday night game, on NBC, between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. “All the available data indicates that the Seahawks–Patriots Super Bowl rematch was the main attraction on Wednesday night.”
There were two big events on TV last Wednesday night: Trump’s midterm convention speech and the NFL season kickoff.
The ratings are finally in: The NFL game drew more than 25 million viewers. Trump’s speech reached about 3 million viewers. https://t.co/O0kAHRmadk
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 15, 2026
For the last several years, the NFL has been the highest-rated show on television. Of the highest-rated broadcasts in the 2025-26 TV season, the top six were all NFL games, as were 12 of the top 13. So it was always highly unlikely that Trump’s midterm convention would outrate the first game of the year.
Also, Trump’s speech, per CNN, aired on Fox News, Newsmax, and other conservative channels, but not in prime time on broadcast networks, so it was unlikely to outrate the game on NBC.
CNN also reported that the second night of the convention failed to outrate that night’s NFL game, a 49ers-Rams game from Australia that streamed on Netflix.
“That game averaged 18.5 million viewers in the US, according to Nielsen,” CNN said. “Trump’s night two speech averaged 2.6 million viewers via Fox News; 350,000 via Newsmax; and about 100,000 via NewsNation.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
