By CAT MURPHY and BEN MESSINGER
Capital News Service
WASHINGTON — While CNN and Fox News focused around 2 p.m. Wednesday on Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, Trump TV replayed the president’s address at the National Prayer Breakfast in February.
By 3 p.m., both CNN and Fox News were covering the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Trump TV aired a March 2025 ad titled “It turned out that all we really needed was a new President” before playing a speech Trump gave to farmers in June.
The president’s new 24/7 streaming channel, Trump TV, showcases moments the administration wants voters to see ahead of the midterm elections. The White House said Trump TV is “updated in real time” and features “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place.”
An analysis by Capital News Service found the channel does feature the president’s greatest hits. What it doesn’t feature is the news.
The administration launched the channel Sept. 21 following Trump’s decision to ban reporters from CNN, Politico and MS NOW. All three outlets have since regained access to the White House after a judge ordered the administration to reinstate the reporters while the legal battle plays out.
But the Trump TV livestream has continued to broadcast from the White House’s official YouTube page, and the administration earlier this week registered the domain trumptv.gov. A private company connected to the Trump family business also filed a trademark application for “TRUMP TV.”
“Not only is this concerning from a political communication perspective, but also the ability to use the presidential office in order to amplify one’s own wealth is concerning and similar to other countries that are not democracies,” Zelly Martin, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Tampa, told CNS.
A CNS analysis of five hours of coverage from Trump TV, CNN and Fox News on Wednesday identified a stark contrast between what the president is doing and what the president wants the American people to see him doing.
So while Trump TV viewers Wednesday saw a months-old speech in which Trump said Iran wanted “to make a deal with us very badly,” they did not see the Iranian president say at the U.N. that “the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying.”
A little after 3:30 p.m., CNN was covering the hearing on Trump’s media ban. Fox News was broadcasting a Senate subcommittee hearing on Flock cameras. Trump TV was airing footage of a three-week-old press conference on healthcare affordability — despite the administration’s decision a day earlier to cancel health insurance plans for more than 750,000 enrollees covered by the Affordable Care Act.
“They’re certainly pushing a certain narrative, which is very similar to what we have seen in Russia,” Martin said. “I would say it is propaganda.”
