Matt Drudge has been on the airwaves and internet for over twenty years with his insane rants on everything from climate denial to how Obama paid the military to aim a hurricane right at Mar-A-Lago in order to vexate Donald Trump. Drudge knows his audience. He knows what sells and Matt Drudge trolled Donald Trump bigly on his Saturday night web page in the wake of Charlottesville, topping the page with, “Make America Hate Again.” Mediaite:
Matt Drudge trolled President Trump‘s signature campaign slogan to weigh in on the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Topping the homepage of Drudge Report on Saturday night, it read, “Make America Hate Again! Chaos at Race Rally in Virginia.”
Drudge has been growing increasingly critical of the Trump presidency. Last month, he tweeted a front page of an old copy of the New York Daily News that read “Trump in a Slump.” He went after Republicans for their failed efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare with the headline “Hot Mess: Will They Botch Tax Cuts Next?” Back in February, he tweeted that the GOP “should be sued for fraud” for their inaction on Obamacare and tax cuts.
Drudge joined on the alt right wingnut band wagon with Alex Jones and Breitbart when Donald Trump as Savior was first being pitched. Now it would appear that Drudge has either fallen from or jumped off that wagon. This is worth watching only because it's part of a trend. Axios reported Saturday that Trump might arrange to have John Kelly fire Steve Bannon. Maybe Steve Bannon would prefer to go back to Breitbart at that. Breitbart wasted no time in trolling Trump when Anthony Scarramucci made headlines about Bannon’s gymnastic proclivities.
Then there’s the grey emeritus of right wing talk radio, Rush Limbaugh. He purportedly gave up on Trump before the election and now reiterates that. The Atlantic:
[August 2016 show on immigration and the wall]
Rush Limbaugh: Yeah, well I guess the difference is—well not the difference, I guess the thing is, this is gonna enrage you. You know, I could choose a path here to try to mollify you, but I never took him seriously on this!
Rick: 10 million people did.
Rush Limbaugh: Yeah, and they still don’t care. My point is they still don’t care. They’re gonna stick with him no matter what.
Rick: But this is why Trump is going to get annihilated. Because nobody called him out early on about his absurd policies.
Rush Limbaugh: Yes they did! For crying out loud, 15 candidates called him out. Everybody was calling him out. Everybody was calling him an idiot and a charlatan and a phoney-boloney plastic banana—everybody was.
Rick: Except unfortunately the number one place where Republican primary voters get their news.
Rush Limbaugh: Oh no, it’s on me and we’re out of time––
Rick: Which is Fox.
So now apparently it comes down to Fox. They may be the only one left when all is said and done and even they have admitted that we live in an unwell civil culture and that Trump's approval rating has dropped.
If right wing media is starting to abandon Donald Trump, it may well be the beginning of the end. Delightful.