Newsmax started out as a strong supporter of American help for Ukraine after Russia invaded it 2022, but as Donald Trump turned against Ukraine and became a simp for Vladimir Putin, Newsmax moved toward that drection as well. Its coverage of last month’s confrontational meeting between Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was another step toward the right-wing pro-Russia direction. It led off with a Feb. 21 article touting how Trump “reportedly told a group of governors that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his associates ‘don’t have any cards to play’ in negotiations to end the war with Russia,” then got worse with the actual meeting:
- Trump to Zelenskyy: You Are ‘Gambling With WWIII’
- WH: Support Rolls in for Trump After Standoff With Zelenskyy
- Elon Musk: Zelenskyy ‘Destroyed Himself’
- Trump: Zelenskyy Not Ready for Peace If America Is Involved
- Russians Laud Trump: ‘Proper Slap Down’ of Zelenskyy
- Speaker Johnson on Zelenskyy Spat: Trump Puts America First
- Sen. Graham Says Ukraine Should Replace Zelenskyy If He Doesn’t Apologize
- Report: Trump Mulls Ending Military Aid to Ukraine
- Trump Calls for ‘Ceasefire Now’ Between Russia and Ukraine
Newsmax eventually added some balance to all this right-wing rhetoric:
- Zelenskyy Thanks America After Contentious WH Visit
- US Lawmakers React to Oval Office Clash
- World Reacts to Zelenskyy-Trump Oval Office Clash
- Some GOP Hawks Stunned by Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting
- Ukrainian MP Hits Back at Graham’s Call for Zelenskyy to Resign
- EU Leaders Stand With Zelenskyy After Trump Spat
- Zelenskyy: Relations With Trump Can Be Mended After Spat
- Trump-Zelenskyy Shouting Match Stuns World Leaders, Europe Backs Ukraine
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy was missing in action throughout all of this. But a couple weeks earlier, he wrote a Feb. 15 column praising Trump’s norm-violating phone call to Putin:
President Donald Trump has infuriated the establishment with his 90-minute phone call this week with Vladmir Putin.
Once again, the 47th President seems to have broken all protocols.
In the 70s, the left use to say, “Give peace a chance.”
I say today, “Give Trump a chance.”
Yes, it’s unorthodox what the president did — directly engaging with Russian President Putin, a fellow world leader, in seeking to solve a complex and brutal war that now likely has over a million casualties in just three years.
I have no illusion that Trump realizes that Putin and Russians are the villains here — having launched a completely unprovoked attack on the sovereign state of Ukraine in February of 2021.
But Trump is not big on recriminations; he is focused on ending the conflict, and quickly.
[…]The bottom line here is President Trump is trying an outside-the-box approach.
He has had tremendous success with it before.
So let’s give President Trump a chance.
Even if means alienating our ally Ukraine? Apparently so.