President Trump’s first weeks back in the White House have included government groups scrambling to figure out their funding and Wall Street investors getting whipsawed by trade wars that seemed to begin and then end in an instant.
But through it all, the mood among those in right-wing media has been nothing short of ebullient.
“I don’t have enough time for all the winning,” Dan Bongino, a longtime Trump supporter and popular right-wing podcaster, said on his show on Tuesday. “It’s a good problem to have.”
A chorus of right-wing influencers and media figures has spent Mr. Trump’s first two weeks in office responding to his every move with a unified sense of support and even awe. The triumphant tone could reflect an important advantage for Mr. Trump during his second presidential term: In the eyes of right-wing media, he can do no wrong.
Many of these right-wing media figures have long identified as allies of Mr. Trump, eschewing traditional media practices of avoiding the appearance of political bias.
Mr. Trump has notched several accomplishments in his short time back at the White House. He has signed a flurry of executive orders intended to reshape Washington, and all his cabinet picks who faced a vote before Congress were confirmed.
But there have also been setbacks. Mr. Trump’s administration abruptly froze trillions of dollars in government funding only to see two federal judges block the order. The administration rescinded the plan two days later. A federal judge also blocked an executive order that aimed to end so-called birthright citizenship.
Still, the idea of nonstop winning is being pushed by the White House itself. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a Fox News interview that “there is so much winning out of the Trump White House that the mainstream legacy media can’t keep up with it.”
It isn’t just right-wing media noting Mr. Trump’s successes. The headline of an Axios email newsletter on Tuesday highlighted “Trump’s winning streak.”
But for the throng of right-wing personalities and social media influencers who have fully aligned behind him and his agenda, Mr. Trump’s victories are absolute. Even the chaos and confusion may be a victory in itself — a sign of disruption in the nation’s capital.
“Literally the only thing the left has is that Trump hasn’t managed to lower egg prices in 6 days, because he’s done nearly everything else,” Charlie Kirk, a Trump ally and head of Turning Point USA, a youth-focused conservative group, wrote on X. “That’s called winning.”
Users on social media circulated carefully curated lists of Mr. Trump’s actions since he entered the White House, mixing notable victories alongside more dubious claims.
One prominent right-wing account on X, which has more than 3.5 million followers, shared a list of 16 seeming wins. It claimed that water reservoirs in California were “filled up” based on Mr. Trump’s order, after a misleading claim that the state’s water management policy led to dry hydrants during the Los Angeles wildfires. (Mr. Trump’s administration released more than a billion gallons of water from two dams, but none of it will reach Los Angeles.) It also stated that funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development was “canceled.” (It was not, though the Trump administration ordered that almost all its employees be put on leave.)
Similar lists detailed accomplishments ranging from the exaggerated to the fantastical, including that Mr. Trump had “made peace” between Israel and Hamas. (A cease-fire deal was struck at the end of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s term with Mr. Trump’s involvement, though deep hostilities between Israel and Hamas remain.)
The power of the pro-Trump messaging was especially clear during Mr. Trump’s threat to install 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Within hours on Monday, the stock market had dropped sharply, Canada had vowed retaliatory tariffs, and Wall Street experts flocked to television to underscore that, historically, no one wins in a trade war.
Before the day ended, Mr. Trump had announced a 30-day pause on the tariffs.
Whether it was a win for Mr. Trump or not seemed to rest in the eye of the beholder. Canada and Mexico both announced plans Monday that were, to some extent, already announced or were within the bounds of previous commitments. Other plans, including a new drug czar proposed for Canada, had not yet come into effect, and their impact on Mr. Trump’s vague priorities — stemming the flow of fentanyl, among others — remained unclear.
Many personalities in right-wing media saw a clearer triumph for Mr. Trump in the exchange. The “War Room” podcast called it an “utter victory” and a “truly historic day.” Tim Pool, a right-wing podcaster, said Mr. Trump had “already won” a trade war that had not yet begun. Even Ben Shapiro, the right-wing podcaster who has long criticized tariffs as costly taxes, said Mr. Trump’s plan paired with other tax cuts would be “a worthwhile trade off.”
The reliably conservative opinion page of The Wall Street Journal noticed the right-wing media’s apparent unity.
“None of this means the tariffs are some genius power play,” the editorial board wrote, “as the Trump media chorus is boasting.”
