Why Trump Hates ABC—but Not David Muir, Its ‘Central Casting’ Debate Anchor

Donald Trump has prepared for his crucial debate against Kamala Harris on Tuesday for weeks, with attack after attack on its host, ABC News.

He has called it “dishonest,” “fake” and “the worst network,” and on Wednesday told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he expected it to pass questions to Harris, adding that the “head of ABC,” Dana Walden, is “her best friend.” (Walden is co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, which oversees ABC.) Trump also attacked the network’s star anchor George Stephanopoulos, calling him “George Slopadopoulos,” and disparaged his height, saying “I’ve had him up to here” while gesturing at his chest.

But Stephanopoulos is not involved in the debate—and instead, Trump has been eerily silent on both the moderators: David Muir, anchor of World News Tonight, and Linsey Davis, the Sunday anchor of the same show.

Harris Accuses Trump of Trying to Muzzle Her in TV DebateLET ME SPEAK!

David Gardner

Trump’s silence on Muir, provides an intriguing insight into the former president. He has a long relationship with the anchor—which, unusually, has not resulted in Muir coming under attack. (In contrast, Tuesday will be Trump’s first encounter with Davis.)

“David Muir seems like central casting to Donald Trump,” longtime Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told the Daily Beast. A former ABC News staffer also said they have heard Trump call Muir “handsome.”

Conway recounted how, on Labor Day 2016, Trump was told his team had rejected an interview with ABC after the network asked. The interview would have aired on Good Morning America and World News Tonight, she said. But after hearing that his rivals, Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine, had agreed to sit down with Muir, he demanded a similar joint interview with Pence.

“If it’s David Muir, I wanna do it,” Trump said, Conway recounted. Trump and Mike Pence were interviewed by Muir at the Canfield County Fairgrounds in Ohio and on Trump’s private plane.

The moment offers insight into Trump’s acknowledgment of the reach ABC News has: multiple current and former ABC News staffers and Trump advisers told the Daily Beast that Trump liked the 50-year-old anchor because of his dominance in the ratings.

In a statement, an ABC News spokesperson said, “David Muir is one of the most prolific, trusted and highly respected journalists in America—he is tough, but fair which is why ABC World News Tonight has been the most watched newscast for nearly a decade. His work speaks for itself.” The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Muir’s ratings have blown out NBC’s Lester Holt and CBS’ Norah O’Donnell’s for years—so much so that ABC noted on Monday how World News Tonight has earned its eighth year in a row ahead of Holt’s Nightly News in total viewers and its fifth year ahead in the 25-54 demographic, the metric advertisers use to measure news programs. It was also the No. 1 program on television—with and without sports—for 23 weeks this season, according to the network.

“Trump likes people who are number one in the ratings, and David’s number one,” an ABC News reporter said.

Muir’s on-screen primacy likely matters to the television producer embedded within Trump, who spent years on broadcast screens as the host of The Apprentice and its Celebrity spinoff.

“As the star of NBC’s number one show, Donald Trump knows a thing or two about getting ratings,” Conway told The Daily Beast.

A former Trump adviser agreed, saying that a conventionally attractive TV anchor who’s a ratings winner was simply Trump’s type. “It’s kind of a part of that whole package,” the adviser said.

Trump’s warm relationship with Muir extended through his presidency. Muir secured the first televised interview with Trump following his inauguration, where he pressed the then-president on his false claims of voter fraud—to Trump’s chagrin. Trump complained about some of the questions, but was much more measured than when he spewed vitriol at CNN’s Jim Acosta just weeks prior at a New York press conference.

Muir also landed the first TV interview with Trump outside the Fox News sphere during the Covid pandemic, in May 2020. Although he drew criticism for not pressing Trump harder, including from then-CNN commentator, Oliver Darcy, he was also praised by left-leaning Vox.com and the Poynter Institute, which studies journalism.

Muir’s interviews have stayed clear of the sparring some other anchors, such as Stephanopoulos and ABC News colleague Rachel Scott, have had with Trump. He has never spoken of his political views. New York public records—Muir lives in New York City and has a second home in his native Skaneateles, in the state’s Finger Lakes region—do not list him as having a party affiliation.

And Muir has given Trump no attack material by avoiding public perception of partisanship—unlike Stephanopoulos, who jumped to journalism from being then-Pres. Clinton’s press secretary. He had to apologize in 2015 for failing to disclose a $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation to ABC bosses.

Trump is now suing Stephanopoulos after a March interview on The Week with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace over her support for Trump. He questioned how she could support someone “found liable for rape.” Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and reacted by filing a defamation lawsuit over the conflation. (The judge who oversaw the civil damages trial clarified that the “sexual abuse” Trump was found liable for was “rape” in ordinary terms.)

Muir and Davis were announced as the Sep. 10 debate anchors in May, when ABC’s debate was going to be a second Trump-Joe Biden showdown. Networks had fought to secure the debates when both the Biden and Trump campaigns jettisoned the traditional Commission for Presidential Debates to go it alone. (CNN was the other winner; Biden’s disastrous performance in their June debate led to him stepping aside for Harris.)

By May, Trump was suing Stephanopoulos, which would have made it impossible for him to moderate a debate; whether that factored into Trump’s decision to agree to the ABC debate is unknown—but it certainly served to up the public tension between Trump and the anchor.

But there has been tension between Stephanopoulos and the network too—over Muir.

Stephanopoulos almost walked out in 2021, CNN reported, over Muir being made the face of special reports and its effective “chief anchor.” To mollify Stephanopoulos, the network handed him a production company, a hefty pay bump, and put him in charge of morning breaking news events—but kept Muir in charge of all other special reports. He then led ABC News’ 2022 election coverage instead of Stephanopoulos.

Muir seems aware of Trump’s apparent liking for him—if in jest. Days before the 2020 election, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel jabbed Muir about Trump’s affinity for him during their May 2020 interview. “I also feel like your hair looks like what he thinks his hair looks like,” Kimmel said.

“Well, I’m not going to touch that one,” Muir said.