During Monday’s edition of The Lead, CNN host Jake Tapper took issue with a post President Trump made on Truth Social where he called out ABC and NBC for running “97% bad stories” about him. Tapper scoffed at the post and claimed he didn’t believe the number. But Trump’s claim wasn’t too far off. According to a Media Research Center study of Trump’s first 100 days, the broadcast network coverage of Trump was 92 percent negative and 97 percent negative on DOGE.
“He posted several times last night about NBC and ABC. In this particular post claiming that NBC News and ABC News give him ‘97 percent bad stories’ – which is, I can't believe that's statistic at all,” Tapper bitterly declared.
Trump may have exaggerated the number a bit, but the Media Research Center did crunch the numbers and he wasn’t far off:
Just 100 days into President Donald Trump’s second term, the broadcast evening news landscape is even more lopsided than it was eight years ago, when Trump was besieged with relentlessly hostile coverage. So far this year, the new Trump administration has faced a withering 92% negative coverage from ABC, CBS and NBC, whose flagship news programs averaged more than 19.3 million viewers during the first quarter of 2025, making them the most widely-watched news programs in the country.
The study also found that the broadcast network coverage of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) received 97 percent negative coverage. “The evening newscasts spent a whopping 310 minutes on ‘DOGE,’ Elon Musk’s tech-savvy approach to reducing government staffing and spending, virtually all of it (97%) negative,” the study’s author Rich Noyes wrote.
Going along with their sourness on DOGE, when looking at their coverage of members of Trump’s administration, Elon Musk received 96 percent negative coverage.
Back on CNN, it became clear that Tapper’s mention and dismissal of the negative coverage were meant to be stepping stones so he could pearl clutch about Trump talking about pulling ABC’s and NBC’s broadcast licenses (something he’s threatened before but never carried out):
President Trump's anger with the mainstream media is not a new grudge, but does this feel different at all, this kind of threat given the fact that he has Brendan Carr at the FCC, you know, doing a lot of things that Trump is happy about. Not to mention, getting settlements from the parent companies of CBS News and ABC news in recent months, tens of millions of dollars from Paramount and Disney?
“You know, you pointed out, this is more of the same. Donald Trump feels that the mainstream media does not characterize or cover him fairly. That, you know, since the '16 campaign, that it's kind of been downhill since then, and, you know, the same with the Republican Party writ large,” argued former Trump campaign advisor David Urban.
Tapper also bizarrely suggested Trump was going to invoke one of Congress’s powers to go after those networks. “[I]t's an explicit threat to use the power of the purse, the power of the presidency, to go after anybody who dares criticize him,” he strangely warned.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
August 25, 2025
6:19:50 p.m. Eastern(…)
JAKE TAPPER: Trump has been busy on Truth Social. He posted several times last night about NBC and ABC. In this particular post claiming that NBC News and ABC News give him “97 percent bad stories” – which is, I can't believe that's statistic at all – and should, quote, “have their licenses revoked by the FCC,” the Federal Communications Commission.
So, obviously, David, President Trump's anger with the mainstream media is not a new grudge, but does this feel different at all, this kind of threat given the fact that he has Brendan Carr at the FCC, you know, doing a lot of things that Trump is happy about. Not to mention, getting settlements from the parent companies of CBS News and ABC news in recent months, tens of millions of dollars from Paramount and Disney?
DAVID URBAN: Yes. Listen, Jake, I think this is -- you know, you pointed out, this is more of the same. Donald Trump feels that the mainstream media does not characterize or cover him fairly. That, you know, since the '16 campaign, that it's kind of been downhill since then, and, you know, the same with the Republican Party writ large.
And so, again, he's going to continue to bang on this theme through '26 through '28. So, when bad stories do show up, he's going to blame it on the media. He's going to blame it on these liberal news outlets. Right? You've seen, you know, MSNBC is no longer MSNBC. It is now MS Now. You know, people are losing faith in those institutions, and I think Donald Trump's just calling that into question even more.
TAPPER: But I think, Alyssa, the question here and the thematic question is President Trump, it's not just expressing a grievance, it's -- and it's an explicit threat to use the power of the purse, the power of the presidency, to go after anybody who dares criticize him. We just heard him do that with Wes Moore. We just heard him do it with NBC and CBS. President Trump -- or, I'm sorry, NBC and ABC.
President Trump also threatened to reopen investigations into former ally, now critic New Jersey Governor Chris Christie over the bridge gate scandal from when he was governor. He was watching Chris Christie being interviewed on ABC's this week yesterday.
(…)
