Matt Drudge started showing signs that he had soured on President Trump months before the election. Since the vote, the fedora-topped media pioneer has seemed even more eager to distance himself and his site from the man in the White House.
“YOU’RE FIRED!” Drudge Report blared in a headline within minutes of CNN’s calling the election for Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Saturday. For nearly 24 hours afterward, that headline remained at the top of the site. In addition, a screenshot of the Drudge Report main page, with the “YOU’RE FIRED!” headline, has been the only tweet on the @DRUDGE Twitter account since Saturday.
In his 25-year career, Mr. Drudge has proved himself an expert aggregator, a digital journalist who links to stories plucked from the web. And he has done it with style, packaging his links with tabloid-poetry headlines that make readers click.
After the “YOU’RE FIRED!” headline, Drudge Report turned this week to the coming transfer of power.
THE WORLD MOVES ON.
Americans pivot from red-hot Trump to Biden’s seasoned cool.
Trump defied gravity; now falls back to earth, future TBD.
Dogs will return to White House: Biden’s German shepherds!
Four years ago, Drudge Report heralded Mr. Trump’s “rock-star welcome in Florida” and linked to coverage of his rallies. The journalist Carl Bernstein credited Mr. Drudge’s support as a key part of Mr. Trump’s political rise, and Mr. Trump called Mr. Drudge “a great gentleman.”
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Drudge Report started distancing itself from the president last year, a development that was not lost on Mr. Trump, who said on Twitter in April: “I gave up on Drudge (a really nice guy) long ago, as have many others.” Conservative sites accused Mr. Drudge of being an agent of the left.
Now Drudge Report is filled with headlines that describe the outgoing president as “bitter” and “not a good loser.” Several links lead to articles debunking Mr. Trump’s baseless accusations of election fraud.
Mr. Drudge, who rarely gives interviews, did not reply to requests for comment. He appeared ready to close the chapter on the current president and focus on the president-elect.
On Wednesday, Drudge Report included two lines of commentary — prominently displayed, in red type — that did not link to an external story and compared Mr. Biden favorably to the conservative hero Ronald Reagan.
Biden now up to 50.8 percent of popular vote, topping Reagan’s 50/7 percent in 1980 …
Is highest percentage for challenger since FDR in 1932 …
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
