The relationship between Fox News and former President Donald Trump seems to have hit a rough patch.

During a live speech Trump delivered on Monday, the network abruptly cut away from his address when he criticized the network and voiced support for its former top host, Tucker Carlson. Fox had been broadcasting Trump’s speech to a rally in South Carolina but made the decision to cut away approximately 13 minutes into his speech when he began discussing his recent appearance on Carlson’s show, as reported by Mediaite.

As Trump highlighted his rising popularity compared to other GOP presidential contenders in national polls, he remarked, “We’re going up, and we’re the only ones going up. They’re going down, and they’re going down, down, down.” Trump then mentioned the GOP debates, one of which had already been hosted by Fox News, which he opted out of in favor of the Carlson interview. Another debate was scheduled for Thursday, moderated by Fox Business, but Trump had no plans to attend that one either.

“They ought to stop wasting their time,” he said of the other Republican contenders. “You know, they’re wasting a lot of time with these ridiculous debates that nobody’s watching.”

“Their last debate was the lowest-rated debate in history. That’s a good compliment. Now, what was I doing — I was someplace else, wasn’t I? I was doing another interview. We had 271 million people listening to the Tucker Carlson interview. That’s an all-time record,” Trump said.

As the crowd began to cheer, Fox host Martha MacCallum cut in.

“So here we are, back in the thick of campaign season. We are now just four months away from the Iowa primaries. And you see former President Trump in a place where you would expect to see him today and in the days to come, South Carolina,” MacCallum said.

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