Why ‘Trump TV’ probably won’t be the president’s media play after White House
Four years ago when polls pointed to a win for Hillary Clinton, the next move expected for thencandidate Donald Trump was a TV channel bearing his name.
His surprise victory changed all that. But with President Trump exiting the White House in January 2021 after losing his reelection bid last week to former Vice President Joe Biden, speculation about his future as a media entity has reemerged.
Trump's potency as a TV attraction has been proved by the ratings performance of cable news networks, which have covered his presidency as a saga unfolding in real time with volatility, surprises and a large cast of characters. Audience levels for CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have risen since Trump officially entered his first presidential race in 2015 and reached record levels this year.
But launching a cable network with Trump's name — an idea floated four years ago — would be a difficult climb in the TV landscape, where consumers have shifted away from pay TV subscriptions. As the universe of traditional pay TV customers slowly but steadily diminishes, getting operators to pay a license fee to carry a new channel would be a major challenge.
"There's no way you can start a new network in this environment," said Derek Baine, an analyst for Kagan, a media research group for S&P Global Market Intelligence. Cable and satellite subscriptions have declined from 97.5 million in 2016 to 79.2 million at the end of the third quarter of this year, according to Kagan's data.
Other media executives who have dealt with Trump say privately the president likely does not want the heavy lift involved in getting a new channel launched. Baine said it would be more viable for Trump to be involved in the acquisition of an existing channel that already caters to his rabid followers. A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year on a Trump-friendly group looking to acquire San Diego-based One America News, a small but more Trump-loyal outlet owned by the privately held Herring Networks. The company has said OAN is not for sale.
The easier route for Trump is to sign on as a program host or paid contributor at an established network.
Fox News, where Trump's views align with its conservative opinion hosts, would be an obvious fit from an audience perspective. Trump already believes he is personally responsible for the channel's dominance in the ratings, although Rupert Murdoch's operation has been the most-watched cable news source since 2002.
"If they are smart, Fox will pay Trump a lot of money to be exclusive to their network," said Jon Klein, a veteran TV news executive and former president of CNN.
Fox News would provide Trump with the largest potential audience and the best opportunity of a big payday — its three primetime hosts, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, all make eight-figure annual salaries and the network delivers strong profits for parent Fox Corp. But if Trump positions himself as a candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination, as many in the president's inner circle expect, he could not have a program or paid role on the network, a longstanding policy for all major news organizations.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had to quit his Saturday night program on Fox News before he pursued the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were dropped as paid contributors when they entered the 2012 presidential race.
TV deals for former presidents are nothing new, as their rarefied experience in the White House provides a unique perspective on the world.
In the early 1960s, Harry Truman did a series of interview programs analyzing his presidency. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald Ford signed deals as network news commentators after they left the Oval Office. Bill Clinton met with at least one network in 2002 about the possibility of hosting his own talk show.
Barack Obama, relaxed and charismatic on TV, could have likely written his own ticket for an oncamera career. But he chose instead to enter a lucrative production deal with the streaming behemoth Netflik.
Trump was already a TV star before his presidency, as NBC transformed the real estate mogul into the host of the competition reality show "The Apprentice," elevating his notoriety exponentially from 2004 to 2015. Even in losing last week's election, he drew the second-largest number of votes in history.
A Fox News role for Trump would require some fence mending. Trump grew increasingly irritated during the 2020 campaign over the network's coverage of the presidential race by its journalists and pollsters. The White House is angry about the call by the Fox News decision desk on election night to project that Arizona and its 11 electoral votes would go to Democratic nominee and now President-elect Joe Biden.