Trump predicts Morning Joe’s demise after an earlier one-hour cut

Morning Joe lost one of its four weekday hours in June, but President Donald Trump’s prediction that the MS NOW programme will soon be “dead” goes beyond that schedule change. The cut was announced in March, months before his Truth Social post of 28 September 2026. [1] [2] [3]

Trump wrote at 8.02am Eastern time that Joe Scarborough’s show had been “cut way back” and had “REALLY BAD RATINGS”. He gave no audience figure or comparison period, and his post linked to no news report. [1]

The programme moved from 6–10am to 6–9am Eastern time, a 25% reduction in scheduled airtime. Stephanie Ruhle took the slot beginning at 9am. MS NOW said the change would give the Morning Joe team more scope to develop digital offerings; the network also told the Associated Press that the show had chosen to shorten its run. [2] [8]

The ratings depend on what is being compared. MS NOW said Morning Joe averaged 733,000 television viewers in August, up 27% on the same period in 2025. That was below the 852,000 it reported for April, when the show still occupied four hours; the two averages cover different broadcast hours and news periods. [4] [11]

For MS NOW as a whole, TVNewser reported that August primetime viewing was down 8% from July but up 20% from August 2025. Its primetime audience among adults aged 25–54 trailed both CNN and Fox News. Those network figures cannot be read as Morning Joe ratings. [6]

The show’s podcast listing says its 6am hour that morning discussed criticism of a political advert involving Trump. What prompted his post is unclear.