President Donald Trump went off on a tangent during a TV interview where he professed his love for TiVo, the digital recording service launched in the 90s and discontinued last year.
Trump was speaking to Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher in Los Angeles Tuesday night when he made the admission, veering from tariffs to TiVo.
The president said that despite a Supreme Court striking down his trade tariffs, “we’ve never been this successful.” He said other media outlets “don’t want to talk about it” but praised Fox News for their coverage.
“You have such a good show. I watch you all the time,” Trump told Gallagher. “Sometimes I tape it and watch it. It's ok, I don't know what they call it today.”
He continued: “They used to call it TiVo. Maybe they still do. But I love TiVo or its equivalent.”
Gallagher then jumped in and said: “DVR.”
TiVo ended sales of its physical DVR hardware and accessories October 1, 2025. Launched in 1999, TiVo revolutionized TV by allowing users to record, skip commercials, and customize their viewing, becoming so popular that “TiVo” entered the language as a verb for recording shows.
Its signature “badoop” sound and cultural ubiquity were reflected in mentions on shows like Sex and the City and The Simpsons.
The rise of cord-cutting and streaming services has diminished demand for TiVo’s DVRs, as many viewers no longer need to record live cable shows and can easily access on-demand content.
Trump is not alone in his fondness for TiVo. Devoted customers who relied on the service for years — some buying lifetime plans — were left in limbo when the company announced it was taking the device off the market.
Still, Trump, 80, was mocked by some on social media for the outburst.
“Grampa also loves those MySpace you kids are doing all the aol and the Netscaping,” one person joked.
“No wonder he’s so scattered. He still has TiVo,” another remarked.
“SNL cold open right here,” someone else quipped.
Elsewhere in the Fox News interview, Gallagher allowed Trump to claim unchallenged that the U.S. was “taking out hundreds of billions of dollars” from Venezuela since he extracted the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, in a military operation earlier this year.
Trump also claimed the nation was “a very happy country” despite a recent devastating earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people.
“Venezuela's like a different place, but we're taking out hundreds of billions of dollars. They're taking out hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said. “I mean, they had the tragedy the other day with the…with the problem, as you know. But that was a terrible problem. The earthquake, I guess you'd call it. It was a bad one,” he continued.
“But outside of that, I mean, they have a country that is a very happy country.”
Erin Keller contributed to this report
