Post from Truth Social

A Sunday-morning reaction to a cable show

The post went up at 13:11 UTC, which is 9:11 a.m. Eastern on Sunday, October 4, the morning after the Ohio rally it describes. Fox & Friends Weekend runs from 6 to 10 a.m. ET, and the post says the author is watching it while he writes: "or they will very quickly stop watching (like I am doing right now!)". That parenthetical is the best evidence that he wrote this himself. It is a live TV reaction, phrased as a boycott while the broadcast is still on. The other markers point the same way:

• the coinage "Dumocrats" and the insult "stupid Jessica Tarlov"
• the aside "(beyond!)"
• loose scare quotes ("crazy!", "TRUMP", "happenings")
• a tense slip: "They were all sold out ... and are absolutely phenomenal"
• the fragment "Also, phenomenal ratings for those that properly report"
• his 2025–26 sign-off, "Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT"

The same morning's feed has two polished announcements (John Coale's nomination and the "Super Intelligence Force") that read as staff copy. This post does not. The hour falls inside business hours, which would normally point to an aide, but the live-viewing line outweighs it.

The injury is an omission

Nobody criticized him. What set this off is that a friendly outlet's weekend show led with something else. The comparison drives it: "Other networks are reporting about these Rallies, and really positively," while Fox, the network he treats as owed to his base, is not. "Sad to see" opens in a wounded register. Within two sentences it turns into inflation: "packed house," "sold out, with thousands of people trying to get in," "better than ever," "the hottest things out there, tremendous love." The post moves back and forth the whole way through. Each boast is followed by a return to the slight: "and nothing shows up on Fox!"

The reaction is far bigger than the cause. One weekend show's rundown becomes a prediction that Fox will fall to "the ratings of FAKE NEWS CNN or MSNOW" and could again have "almost went out of business." The anger narrows across three targets:

• the network as a whole ("the old undercurrent at FoxNews")
• Jessica Tarlov, by name
• an unnamed executive ("Probably the same loser")

Speaking for MAGA

He keeps routing the personal grievance through the movement: "Our people want to see our Rallies," "MAGA is not, to put it mildly, happy," "forced down MAGA'S throats." His own displeasure is restated as the base's, which turns a complaint into a threat backed by a voting bloc. The closest defense is rationalization with a projective edge. What he wants (coverage, and Tarlov gone) is pinned on his followers so the demand carries their weight. The threat that viewers "will very quickly stop watching" is the point of the whole post.

The cast is split into all-good and all-bad:

• "the great Maria Bartiromo," who "will end up bigger and better than ever
• watch!"
• the person who fired her, a "loser"
• Fox's guests, "Communists, Socialists, and Dumocrats"

Tarlov, a Democratic strategist and co-host of The Five, is lumped in with that last group.

Bartiromo, retold

Fox let Maria Bartiromo go in early September 2026, calling it a "business decision." Reporting linked her exit to her passing internal guidance to the White House. That guidance reportedly told on-air staff not to dwell on Trump's "delusional claims" in a July address. Her lawyer disputes that she was fired at all. The post shrinks this to "she complained about not being allowed to cover 'TRUMP.'" It keeps the core (an internal fight over Trump coverage) and drops the leak, so a disciplinary matter becomes martyrdom on his behalf. It also ties two unrelated decisions, her firing and the rally rundown, to one imagined culprit ("the same loser"). That is a paranoid move: separate editorial choices become a single plot.

"Remember, Fox tried this act once before, and almost went out of business (and always right before an election!)" points back to after the 2020 election, when Fox's early Arizona call drew his attacks and some viewers drifted to Newsmax. Fox's ratings dipped for a few weeks, recovered, and the network stayed the top-rated cable news channel. "Almost went out of business" rewrites that history to work as a warning. "(and always right before an election!)" turns a single episode into a pattern.

Rallies in safe states, presented as the national picture

Two of the rallies he names, Durant, Oklahoma (October 1) and Mobile, Alabama (October 2), were reported as a midterm start in deep-red states despite his promise to campaign in battlegrounds. The post calls those crowds "representative of what is really happening with our great Republican Party," reading enthusiasm in safe territory as a national signal. "Over the past two days" stretches to cover a rally held three days earlier.

Language

The post keeps its thread. It detours to Tarlov and to Bartiromo and comes back to coverage each time, which is circumstantial speech, not disorganization. Repetition is heavy:

• "Rallies" seven times
• "sold out" and "phenomenal" twice each
• "better than ever" alongside "bigger and better than ever"

That fits his long habit of hammering a key word. "Dumocrats" is a coinage he has used repeatedly since 2025, so it is not a neologism in the clinical sense. Saying he has stopped watching while describing what is on screen is hyperbole: the TV is plainly on. The tense slip and the fragment are within his range for unedited posts. "Over the past two days" for a three-day span is minor imprecision.

Pressure on a friendly outlet

The target is an ally's newsroom, and the leverage is economic: viewers and ratings. Tarlov is named and called "stupid" in front of his whole following, and the post wants her and "all of the others" off the air. It goes no further than telling people to tune out. The elevated rating rests on that naming alone, since contempt aimed at a named commentator has drawn harassment to such targets in the past. The deeper pattern is about who counts as legitimate: coverage is "proper" only when it centers him ("Cover our 'happenings,' and not the opposition to Greatness for America"), and an outlet that airs anything else is recast as the opposition. In archetypal terms this is the King demanding tribute from a herald who failed to announce him. He defends a hierarchy in which Fox serves the movement by attacking the editors inside Fox who make the calls.

Fact Verification

The Texas half is stretched. Trump's only Texas stop in that window was on Thursday, October 1, at the Peterbilt Motors truck plant in Denton. The White House billed it as a visit to promote its trade and manufacturing agenda. He toured the plant and spoke to workers, with Senate nominee Ken Paxton, Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Ronny Jackson present. CBS Texas called it "not a traditional rally but rather a corporate visit." Wikipedia's list of 2025-present Trump rallies does include the Denton event, and coverage lumped it into his "Texas and Oklahoma" campaign swing. His actual Texas rally, with Paxton at Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, was scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, after the post.

The timing is also loose. Denton and the Durant, Oklahoma rally were both on October 1, three days before the post, and Mobile, Alabama was on October 2. So "over the past two days" is off by about a day.

The core claim, that he held campaign events in Ohio, Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas between October 1 and 3, is accurate. The Texas stop just wasn't a ticketed election rally. | | "The rallies were all sold out, with thousands of people trying to get in" | Mostly False | Independent reporting contradicts "all sold out" for at least two of the four events. Tickets were free (registration capped at four per person), so "sold out" can only mean that free tickets were claimed, which doesn't guarantee a full venue.

Mobile, Alabama (October 2, Mitchell Center, 10,041 seats): the Alabama Reflector reported a crowd of "roughly 8,000 supporters" and said "the building was roughly 75 percent full by the time Trump took the stage." New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh, quoted by Heather Cox Richardson, wrote that the arena "was not full" and "some of the upper sections were almost entirely empty." The Daily Beast ran Reuters and Getty photos showing "entire rows behind the president empty," and Newsweek reported videos of empty upper-level sections. Fox10 did report a line that "stretched half a mile across campus" before noon.

Vandalia, Ohio (October 3, high school gym seating up to 5,000): NBC News reported "several stretches of empty seats in upper bleachers as Trump took the stage, and many more by the time he finished speaking 93 minutes later." The Dayton Daily News described "a packed gym" and a line running past the football field, and said some people outside gave up because the lines were so long. That partly supports "people trying to get in," but not a sold-out house.

Durant, Oklahoma (October 1, Choctaw Event Center): this is the best case for the claim. KGOU, KSWO and Oklahoma Voice reported that thousands waited in the rain to get in. The only source for the venue reaching capacity with more people outside was Trump himself, speaking from the stage. No independent outlet confirmed overflow.

Denton, Texas (October 1): a Peterbilt plant visit with remarks to workers, not a ticketed public rally, so "sold out" doesn't apply.

The long lines and "thousands" of attendees are real, but documented empty sections in Mobile and Vandalia contradict "all sold out." | | "Maria Bartiromo was fired by Fox because she complained about not being allowed to cover Trump" | Half True | Fox dismissed Bartiromo in early September 2026, calling it a business decision. Reporting tied the dismissal to her sharing internal guidance with the White House, guidance that reportedly told talent not to focus on Trump's 'delusional claims' in a July address. A dispute over Trump coverage is at the center, but 'complained' leaves out the alleged leak, and her lawyer disputes that she was fired. | | "Fox tried this once before and almost went out of business, right before an election" | False | The likely reference is the period after Fox's early Arizona call in the 2020 election, when Fox ratings dipped for several weeks and Newsmax gained viewers. Fox recovered quickly, remained the top-rated cable news network, and was never near going out of business. The episode came after the election, not before it. | | "Fox spends more time talking to Communists and Socialists, often without rebuttal" | False | Fox's regular Democratic contributors, including Jessica Tarlov of The Five, are mainstream Democratic strategists, not communists or socialists. Fox's panel formats pair them with multiple conservative co-hosts. | | "MSNBC is now called MSNOW" | True | MSNBC rebranded as MS NOW in November 2025 after its spin-off from NBCUniversal into Versant. | | "Other networks are reporting on the rallies very positively" | Mostly False | There is a small kernel of truth. Newsmax gave the Durant rally friendly coverage. Correspondent Mike Carter interviewed supporters in line, one of whom called it the "absolute honor of a lifetime," and Trump played that Newsmax segment on the venue screens and praised Newsmax hosts by name from the stage. Some right-leaning outlets also covered the swing favorably.

Most coverage of these rallies was neutral or critical, not positive:

• NBC News, on Vandalia: led with his "big surprise" prediction and noted empty upper-bleacher seats that grew during the speech.
• CNBC: "In crude Ohio rally speech, Trump says he may not help if Democrats win."
• Al Jazeera: framed him as "defiant about midterm chances."
• PBS/AP: centered on his choice of deep-red states over the battlegrounds he had promised.
• PolitiFact: fact-checked the Vandalia speech and rated several claims false or mostly false.
• Daily Beast and Newsweek: ran headlines about empty seats in Mobile.
• New York Times (McCreesh): said the Mobile rally had "a wistful feel" and that the arena was not full.

I found no network segment or report calling the rallies "crazy" in an approving sense, despite targeted searches. A few outlets did note enthusiasm (NBC's live blog counted three standing ovations in Mobile, and local TV reported long lines), but those were factual descriptions, not the glowing coverage he describes. One friendly network doesn't make the broad characterization accurate. |

Overall Veracity: 44%