President Trump on Tuesday unloaded a barrage of criticism on “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, labeling the talk-show host a “psycho” in a pair of tweets in which the president praised Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” and also lashed out at a CNN host.
In the tweets, Trump referred to the MSNBC morning show as a “really bad show with low ratings” that would “only get worse,” before turning his ire to CNN host Chris Cuomo.
{mosads}”Sorry to say but @foxandfriends is by far the best of the morning political shows on television. It rightfully has BY FAR the highest ratings, not even close,” Trump wrote.
“Morning Psycho (Joe), who helped get me elected in 2016 by having me on (free) all the time, has nosedived, too Angry, Dumb and Sick. A really bad show with low ratings — and will only get worse,” he added.
“CNN has been a proven and long term ratings and beyond disaster. In fact, it rewarded Chris Cuomo with a now unsuccessful prime time slot, despite his massive failure in the morning. Only on CNN,” Trump concluded.
The MSNBC host responded minutes later on his show, displaying a banner with the president’s new nickname for him and commenting on Trump’s supposed compliments relating to the show’s influence.
“Why thank you,” Scarborough, a frequent critic of the president’s, responded. “I remember you telling [CNN President] Jeff Zucker that you didn’t need CNN, the entire network of CNN, to get elected, but you are saying our show is so powerful that we got you elected. Wow, that’s great!”
“He just can’t quit us,” he added.
“Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist also responded directly to Trump, joking that the show was made possible due to “viewers like you.”
“It’s viewers like you, Mr. President, who make it all possible. No, we have a great team who comes in in the middle of the night, works all night, works around the clock, works all weekend to get the show ready,” Geist said.
The MSNBC show has been a frequent target for Trump’s ire following a public spat with the show’s hosts in 2016, after which he ceased regularly appearing on the network.
Trump and Scarborough publicly traded barbs last year, when the president tweeted that “Morning Joe” was a “dead show with very few people watching.”
“If it’s true nobody is watching us anymore, we do know based on your staff members that we have at least one viewer every morning, and we thank you, Donald,” Scarborough responded at the time.