Trump Blames Fox News for Republican Midterm Losses After Rage-Texting Host To Attack Jessica Tarlov

Donald Trump turned his ire upon his longstanding media allies on Tuesday night, blaming Fox News for catastrophic Republican midterm defeats as Democrats seized control of both houses of Congress.

Writing across social media platforms shortly before midnight on 3 November 2026, Trump asserted that the network bore direct responsibility for the wipeout, alleging that biased political reporting and negative polling had systematically depressed conservative turnout.

The extraordinary confrontation began hours earlier during a live broadcast of The Five, when host Greg Gutfeld read an unsolicited personal text from the president instructing him to tell Democratic co-host Jessica Tarlov that she was 'the WORST'.

Trump followed the text message with public social media broadsides branding Tarlov 'DUMB AS A ROCK' and claiming the network's audience figures were plummeting due to airtime gifted to Democratic opponents.

Yet in a striking display of mutual dependence, the president subsequently phoned into Fox News during the early hours of Wednesday to conduct a lengthy broadcast interview, deflecting personal accountability for the legislative collapse whilst insisting he would have won in a landslide had his own name appeared on the ballot.

A Text Read Live on 'The Five'

The night began with Tarlov. During Tuesday's episode of The Five, the panel was discussing political spam texts before Election Day when Gutfeld checked his phone and found a message from Trump, HuffPost reported.

Trump told Gutfeld to tell Tarlov, a Democratic strategist and one of the show's co-hosts, that she was 'the WORST'. The text also made claims about gas prices, inflation and Iran.

Gutfeld read it out with a grin. Tarlov did not look amused. 'Just press "Stop",' she told the table, before joking: 'At least he didn't ask for $5.'

Shortly before the text, Trump had posted on Truth Social that he could not stand Tarlov's voice, calling her 'DUMB AS A ROCK'. He said he would have to go elsewhere 'until that LOSER is off the air', HuffPost reported.

Fox 'Bears Responsibility,' Trump Says

As results came in, Trump widened his attack on the network. Just before midnight on Tuesday, he posted that Fox 'bears responsibility for these losses' through its coverage.

He went after the network's polling, calling every question a 'hit job'. About half an hour later, he claimed Fox's ratings were down because it was covering 'Trump Deranged Dumocrats' too much, and cited a 'new CNN Poll' instead. Both CNN segments he posted were more than a month old, according to Axios.

Then, despite his complaints, he joined a live interview with Fox anchors that ran into the early hours of Wednesday. The network he had just blamed gave him a platform during its election night coverage.

Karoline Leavitt, his former White House press secretary and now a Fox pundit, appeared on the network's election night coverage and said she had just spoken to the president. The White House and Fox did not immediately respond to Axios's request for comment.

A Night Of Heavy Republican Losses

Trump's outburst came as Democrats took control of both the House and the Senate, in what Reuters described as a sweeping repudiation of the president.

Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression, Susan Collins lost her Maine seat after nearly 30 years in the Senate, and Democrats ousted Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Trump had held dozens of rallies in the final stretch of the campaign, and in Texas he backed Ken Paxton over John Cornyn for the Senate. Paxton lost, Reuters reported.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed 'a generational remake of the Senate map'. Exit polls found half of voters saw the midterms as a chance to rebuke the president, Reuters reported. Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia said voters had rejected 'the depravity, corruption and incompetence' of Trump.

Trump accepted the outcome and congratulated Democrats, Reuters reported. He said he would work with them on immigration but threatened to veto bills he considered 'insane'. On Truth Social, he struck a different note: 'I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!'

The night before, he had told Sean Hannity: 'I'm just asking everybody to pretend that I'm on the ballot,' Newsweek reported. 'If our people vote, we win in a landslide.'

An Old Feud With Tarlov

This was not Trump's first attack on Tarlov during a live broadcast. In July 2025, as she argued on The Five that stricter gun laws could have prevented a mass shooting in New York, he posted: 'I can't stand Jessica Tarlov of THE FIVE,' adding: 'A real loser!' Tarlov carried on: 'You will never be able to stop all of the lunatics,' The Hill reported at the time.

Tensions with Fox had been building for weeks before the election. In late October, Trump posted that Fox was spending too much time on opponents of Republican candidates, and the network's coverage of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed had fuelled friction for months, Axios reported.

Many Fox hosts strongly support the president, and his allies appear on the network frequently, The Hill noted. On election night, that did not spare it.

By the morning of Wednesday 4 November, US time, the president had blamed the polls, the network's coverage and the fact that his name was missing from the ballot.