President Donald Trump took to Truth Social Thursday morning to brag that his GOP midterm convention in Dallas outperformed the ratings for the NFL’s season opener, declaring the event a runaway success even as he squared off against professional football for viewers.
“The Republican Midterm Convention last night, in Dallas, was a major, sold out hit, far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible,” Trump wrote. “It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL. The overall numbers beat the NFL.”
Trump didn’t stop there, bragging that the Dallas arena hosting the event broke its own attendance records and that thousands of fans who couldn’t get inside had to watch on screens set up outside. “I guess people LOVE TRUMP POLITICS!” he wrote, promising to be back on stage Thursday night to close out the event.
The NFL kicked off its season Wednesday night with a rematch of the last Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks on NBC. Trump spoke around 9 p.m. Eastern that same night and is set to return to the podium Thursday, this time going up against a 49ers-Rams matchup streaming on Netflix.
Exact figures for either event were not yet available at the time of Trump’s post, and comparing the two is no simple task since Trump’s convention aired on Fox News but was also streamed for free across multiple outlets, unlike a single-network NFL broadcast. Roughly 28 million viewers tuned in for last year’s opening NFL game, giving some sense of the bar Trump believes he cleared.
Trump has used the two-day Dallas event to rally support for Republican candidates in tight midterm races, using his stage time to tout his administration’s record and, at one point, suggest the country might not have survived had he lost the 2024 election.
The president also had a heated exchange with ABC’s Mary Bruce before the event after she raised questions about Republican candidates skipping the convention over fears of being too closely tied to Trump. He fired back that the campaign simply doesn’t have room for candidates who are safely ahead in their races, insisting that every competitive candidate who was invited showed up.
Whether or not the numbers ultimately back up his claim, there’s no denying Trump knows how to draw a crowd, and Thursday night’s showdown with another NFL slate promises more fireworks from the president.
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