President Donald Trump declared victory in the ratings war Thursday, claiming that his GOP midterm convention in Dallas outperformed the NFL season opener, even as official numbers for either event have yet to be released.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump called Wednesday night’s convention a massive, sold-out success, boasting that the event drew “really big numbers” despite competing head-to-head with the NFL’s kickoff game. He claimed the overall figures beat the football league outright.
Trump also touted the physical turnout at the Dallas arena, saying it broke its own attendance record, with the venue packed and thousands more supporters left outside unable to get in, prompting organizers to set up overflow screens. The president credited the enthusiasm to Americans’ love of what he called “Trump politics.”
The NFL season opener Wednesday night featured a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, airing on NBC. Trump is scheduled to return to the Dallas stage Thursday night, this time going up against a 49ers-Rams matchup streaming on Netflix.
Exact viewership comparisons remain murky. Roughly 28 million people tuned into last year’s NFL opener, but comparable figures for Trump’s convention are complicated by the fact that it aired across multiple platforms, including Fox News as well as livestreams from outlets like the Associated Press and The Blaze, making a clean ratings comparison difficult to pin down.
The Dallas gathering is designed to energize Republican candidates ahead of the midterms, with Trump using his remarks to promote down-ballot GOP contenders while touting his own administration’s record, at one point suggesting the country might not exist today had he lost the 2024 election.
Tensions flared before the event when Trump sparred with an ABC News reporter over coverage suggesting some Republican candidates were skipping the convention to avoid being too closely tied to him. Trump fired back that the arena simply doesn’t have room for every politician, explaining that priority was given to candidates in close races while those with comfortable leads were told to stay home and keep campaigning.
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