Former President Donald Trump's interview with Tucker Carlson received a staggering number of views, showing a different way to spread political messaging.
Trump released a prerecorded 46-minute interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at 9 p.m. on Wednesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. While the decision not to appear on the stage was slammed by Trump's competition, Trump's interview got a significant number of views compared to the others.
UP FOR DEBATE: WHERE TRUMP, DESANTIS, AND REST OF REPUBLICAN 2024 FIELD STAND ON KEY ISSUES
Carlson's interview post was viewed more than 170 million times as of 9:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
"We'll get bigger ratings using this crazy forum that you are using than probably the debate," Trump told Carlson.
The video was also reposted 175,000 times and liked 590,000 times.
This metric is limited in scope, however. The tracker on a post only revealed how many times it was viewed within a news feed, not whether they watched or even finished the video.
The Trump interview was a spike in attention for Carlson, according to past metrics. Carlson's initial post announcing the show's exclusive release on X received more than 137.7 million tweet views but only 28.9 million video views, according to Mashable's Matt Binder. The show's traffic steadily went down from there, with the eighth episode, featuring a transgender man, only receiving 10.6 million tweet views and 3.8 million video views.
i have the declining Tucker Carlson on Twitter *video views* stats for you (# of times the video played for at least 0:02).
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) July 7, 2023
Announcement: 28.9M
Ep. 1: 26.7M
Ep. 2: 13.9M
Ep. 3: 22.1M
Ep. 4: 10.2M
Ep. 5: 6.4M
Ep. 6: 8.5M
Ep. 7: 5.5M
Ep. 8: 3.8Mhttps://t.co/c29SLOQzGL
X initially allowed users to track video views by themselves but removed the feature from most versions of X in May.
Carlson's most popular interview, which featured influencer Andrew Tate, only had 107 million views.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump used his appearance on Carlson's show to slam his opposition in the 2024 campaign, calling former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a "savage maniac" and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson "weak and pathetic."
Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton County, Georgia, jail on Thursday after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted him and 18 others for violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.