Sean Hannity
Host “Hannity,” Fox News
Ainsley Earhardt
Co-host, “Fox & Friends,”
Christopher Ruddy
CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Newsmax Media
Hannity hosts the top nightly cable show. Because of his closeness to Trump – they are in frequent contact – he is widely seen as a member of an unofficial inner circle the president consults, to the exasperation of the White House staff. If Trump can do any wrong, Hannity has yet to acknowledge it. Hannity was also recently revealed to be a client of Trump attorney Michael Cohen and although he was criticized for not telling viewers, it didn’t make a dent in his ratings. But “Fox & Friends” is the program Trump regularly watches and what gets him tweeting in the morning (he’s also a fan of co-host Ainsley Earhardt and recently tweeted about her new book). Ruddy, a London School of Economics graduate, owns an influential conservative multimedia company. The Atlantic monthly has called him the “Zelig of the Trump administration” because he pops up in Washington when least expected and comments quotably to the media about Trump’s decisions and actions, with no serious repercussions from the president.
