Trump Favors Fox and NY Post

in His Website Links

By Howard Polskin, November 7, 2021

What are Donald Trump’s preferred news sources in the world of right-wing media? Based mostly on TheRighting’s analysis of text-based news articles Trump promoted on his website DonaldJTrump.com, he shows a preference to content from Foxnews.com and the New York Post, followed by the Washington Examiner.

I recently analyzed the 64 stories that Trump linked to in October 2021 from a total of 34 difference news sources. He cited articles from Foxnews.com in 16% of those links, followed by the New York Post (14%) and the Washington Examiner (6%).

In October, 20% of his links were to stories relating to election fraud, which was the top subject of his focus. He was particularly fixated on the Wisconsin and Arizona elections. Trump was also attentive to articles bashing Biden’s performance and immigration. Other subjects that he deemed link-worthy included CNN’s ratings, gas and food prices, doomed Dems, defund the police and “Let’s Go Brandon.”

If you’re interested in visiting his website, click on the News tab on the site’s homepage. That will take you to a stack of headlines from Trump that are categorized as either “Statements,” which are one-to-10-sentence pronouncements and endorsements from Trump, or “ICYMI’s,” which presumably means in case you missed it. (Although in Trumpworld, it might stand for I can’t yield my ivermectin. But let’s assume the former.)

“ICMYI’s” are always followed by the headline of the article that Trump is linking to. These links are a window into his news preferences, news sources and the thinking shaping his world view. While it’s no shocker that Fox News and the New York Post are preferred news sources, what’s somewhat surprising is the breadth of what he cited in October. It’s obvious he or his staff are going through a lot of news sources each month to keep the site relatively fresh and current. Even more surprising is that he linked to a few mainstream sources such as the New York Times, AP, CNBC and Forbes. Of course, those links referenced stories negative to Biden or helpful to Trump.

Missing from the list of right-wing news outlets he promoted in October, were some of the biggest names in conservative text-based media. These include: National Review, Infowars, PJ Media, Western Journal and the Daily Caller.

While I haven’t talked to anyone connected to his site, it seems clear the purpose of these links are to poop on Biden and the Dems, polish the halo he thinks floats above his head, and boost some like-minded Republicans especially Senator Chuck Grassley.

The influence of these links is debatable, but it’s smart to pay attention to what a powerful man is reading. However, it’s worth mentioning that year-over-year traffic to his website has collapsed over the past several months. In September, it was down 95%. Draw your own conclusions.

Here’s the full list of the news outlets he promoted last month (and a few are not text-based):

AFPI

American Greatness

Associated Press

Axios

Boston Herald

Breitbart

CNBC

Cyber Ninjas

Daily Mail

Epoch Times

Forbes