Chris Ruddy and Newsmax went all-in on Trump. Now they might pay a price for it.
One night last month at Mar-a-Lago, Chris Ruddy positioned himself in a familiar spot: right next to Donald Trump.
The occasion came just days before a Republican National Committee fundraiser, one of many such events popping up at Trump's Florida properties in his post-presidential life — a time when it has become easier for Ruddy to secure such proximity. During Trump's four years in the White House, aides had grown suspicious of the conservative media entrepreneur's presence and his tendency to bring friends, clients and allies to the private Palm Beach club to make an introduction. At one point, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly went so far as to insist that more-senior White House officials accompany Trump to Mar-a-Lago to temper his interactions with members such as the Palm Beach-based Ruddy, whose Newsmax cable news channel has attempted to challenge Fox News from the right.
That night in April, Trump was riffing for his audience, and Ruddy was at the next table, facing the lobster station. Trump lamented that removing the shells made a $200 lobster look like a $2 lobster and mused that he should tell his staff to serve them in their shells to better impress diners.
A bit of showmanship that Ruddy might relate to.
Newsmax’s visibility rose during the Trump era in no small part because Ruddy’s did. In numerous news stories that were often built on the accounts of unnamed Trump aides and allies, Ruddy was the rare associate willing to lend a colorful quote with his name attached. Through sheer ubiquity — and a strategically public presence at Trump’s clubs — he cultivated a brand name as a Trump “insider” — though advisers to the former president maintain Ruddy was never as close to the man as he led people to believe.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/ruddy-newsmax-trump/2021/05/05/32b09714-9d32-11eb-9d05-ae06f4529ece_story.html
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Does that even exist?
