Matt Drudge, the conservative internet news tycoon, has been a supporter of President Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy.
However, lately, Drudge has seemed frustrated with the president’s inability to carry out the ambitious agenda he promised, reports CNN.
Over the past couple weeks, Drudge has covered the White House with a more critical view, drawing attention to unflattering news about the president. Drudge surprised some observers with recent banners about the investigation into Russian election meddling.
And just last week, CNN writes, he took a direct shot at the president’s lack of progress with a banner that said former President Barack Obama was “LIVING EASY” and a link to a Los Angeles Times story headlined “Trump set out to uproot Obama’s legacy. So far that’s failed.”
These recent changes to coverage have been a warning sign to those who frequent the Drudge Report. Drudge himself has not turned definitely against Trump yet, and did not respond to request for comment from CNN, but “according to two people close to him, he is certainly antsy with the rate of progress coming from the White House.”
One person told CNNMoney that Drudge is growing impatient because he takes some credit for getting Trump elected to the White House and he expected Trump to follow through on his campaign promises.
During the campaign, Drudge frequently spoke with and offered advice to Jared Kushner, reports CNN. It appeared that Drudge continued to steer the president and his administration once in the White House, and visited to meet with Kushner, the president and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Though Drudge is an enigma to many others in the media world because of his reclusive nature, Drudge holds enormous power and often influences or creates news cycles. He is especially known in the conservative media universe and it is not uncommon for Drudge to link a story on his site and see it jump to Fox News or then hear an elected official talk about it.
Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are among Drudge’s millions of global readers. According to Quantcast, the Drudge report pulled in “17.8 million global uniques over the 30 days ending July 25, and 138.6 million visits, for a total of 751.8 million views.”
However, Drudge has always made it clear that he is not blindly loyal to anyone, and will turn on politicians if he feels they have not delivered. For example, he formally supported House Speaker Paul Ryan, but now uses every chance he gets to humiliate the Wisconsin Republican.
“If conservative media outlets start attacking him, it could be over,” said conservative columnist John Ziegler, who was an occasional guest host on Drudge’s old radio show, to CNN. “And Drudge is definitely a bellwether. There’s no question about it.”
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