The Reviews Are In: Trump’s Convention Speech Was a Total Bust

Republicans spent more than $40 million to produce their unprecedented midterm convention—but even that enormous investment couldn’t convince the American public to tune in.

Donald Trump spoke at the Dallas event on Wednesday night for more than an hour and a half. Yet the latest Nielsen ratings data, obtained Friday by Mediaite, proves that pretty much no one was interested in the president’s headlining performance.

The speech pulled 2.5 million viewers on Fox News, one of the few networks that aired the spectacle. That’s actually a slight loss compared to Fox’s typical programming in the same time slot: Last month, Gutfeld attracted 2.51 million viewers per episode, suggesting that people who would have already been watching Fox might have actually tuned out Wednesday.

Newsmax, C-SPAN, and OAN also aired the entirety of Trump’s address. Their ratings numbers are not in yet, but it’s unlikely that they attracted more viewers than Fox News, which typically takes the vast majority of America’s conservative audience.

The president’s lackluster prime-time popularity might have been affected by the National Football League, which opened its season on Wednesday night with a game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The ratings report from the season kickoff still hasn’t been made public, but if last season is any indication of the league’s potential audience, then it likely attracted the eyes of around 28 million viewers.

Nonetheless, Trump was convinced that his performance had outdone football itself.

“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 on Truth Social Thursday morning. “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.

“The Arena, which was really nice, beat its own attendance records,” Trump continued. “The place was packed! There were thousands of people outside who couldn’t get in. Screens were provided. I guess people LOVE TRUMP POLITICS! I’ll be there again tonight to close out the show. Exciting ‘Stuff!’ MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

But the seats were not packed. In fact, days before the event began, Republicans began handing out tickets for free, though those ticketholders were not guaranteed admission. As a result, large swaths of the stadium—particularly in its upper levels—were empty.

President Trump fell asleep at the 9/11 memorial ceremony.

The president dozed off at multiple points during the event Friday, slumped over in his chair with his eyes closed and his head hanging down while everyone else onstage—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Melania Trump, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—was clearly awake.

This is one of many times the 80-year-old president has appeared to be completely asleep on camera in front of dozens of people. But for him to do it today—in front of the families of victims on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the most devastating terror attack in American history—is particularly inappropriate.

FBI Director Kash Patel was so upset about being criticized on social media that he directed bureau agents to find offending accounts and respond to them.

On Thursday, journalist Seth Hettena found texts released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act showing conversations where Patel ordered the FBI’s Assistant Director for Public Affairs, Ben Williamson, to respond to a X poster with the name “Ifindretards.”

The February post said Patel’s “retard rating just went to all time highs. Congratulations Kash.”

Patel thought the post warranted a reply, and pressured agents to “continuously” respond with the bureau’s “record year results.” Hettena simulated how the text exchange would look on an iPhone:

When Williamson protested that responding to @IfindRetards would “look bad” on Patel, the director responded that “it’s not about them, it is about the number of views, because people see it and need to be seeing our stats.”

It’s quite a waste of FBI resources to go after an online troll, but Patel has been overly concerned with social media throughout his tenure, revealing sensitive information from multiple investigations including the Charlie Kirk assassination. Patel isn’t particularly concerned about the bureau’s resources, either, having used them to jet-set around the world partying and hanging out with his singer girlfriend.

Patel only has his job because of his loyalty to President Trump, publishing an enemies list before Trump was elected in 2024. Since he was narrowly confirmed by the Senate last year, Patel’s stewardship of the FBI has been marked by scandal after scandal, and he quickly lost the confidence of the agents under his command. Right now, the only reason Patel still has his job is that he hasn’t lost the confidence of the president.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was reportedly furious after a rogue aide got himself out of trouble by calling someone high up in President Donald Trump’s team, The Daily Mail reported Thursday.

In late July, Gavin Wax, the chief of staff to the undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department, was reportedly placed on leave after he hosted a group of pro-Kremlin Serbian politicians in an executive dining room. Wax was previously placed under investigation for allegedly assaulting someone inside an elevator at the State Department offices.

In order to save his job, Wax made a Hail Mary call to Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s senior personal counsel, one source told the Mail. The president’s top lawyer stepped in to prevent Wax from being fired, five senior administration officials told the publication.

Rubio was infuriated that he couldn’t fire Wax, and has since made it clear that Wax is not welcome in his department, according to three senior administration sources.

“It signals to everyone else in the department that if you have the ear of someone close to the president, you are untouchable no matter what you do,” one State Department official told the Mail. Wax also has reportedly been able to use Natalie Harp to make inroads with Trump.

President Trump led his fans in a bizarre pledge at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas Thursday night.

“Please raise your right hand. I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m gonna try and cheat like hell like they do, there’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care. I am gonna go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that!” Trump had the whole crowd repeat after him,

It was blatant, cultlike behavior, and Trump’s MAGA base seemed to eat it up. The “cheat like hell” line proves that Trump’s rants about election fraud have always been self-serving, as he doesn’t care about any laws as long as he wins.

The Republican midterm convention got off to a poor start Wednesday, with rows of empty seats at the American Airlines Center outside of Dallas. Trump attempted to make news by pledging to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans hold on to Congress after November’s elections, an apparent bribe to get people to vote for him. But that might not be enough, as even some of his most ardent supporters aren’t buying it.

The midterm convention was mocked online as a “Trumpalooza,” with Republicans forced to desperately fill seats at the last minute. It’s a sign that all Trump has left is his small cultlike base, and that may not be enough to save the GOP’s political fortunes in November.