Right-wing firebrand Laura Loomer ripped fellow Trump ally and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy as a “selfish leftist” for vocally criticizing the proposed Nexstar Media-Tegna merger.
Ruddy has led a campaign on Capitol Hill to kill the merger, which can only move forward if the feds repeal a rule barring any single entity from owning local stations that reach more than 39% of US households. As The Post has reported, Ruddy’s efforts have pitted him against another Trump ally, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who wants to end the 39% cap.
In a scathing X post that included screenshots of The Post’s past reporting on the situation, Loomer said Ruddy “continues to show the world, and especially the conservative movement, how much of a selfish leftist he truly is.”
The $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna tie-up would create a local-TV giant with 265 stations across 44 states.
The deal drew mainstream attention this fall after Carr threatened action against ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s inflammatory comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Nexstar briefly pulled Kimmel off the air, prompting critics to it was just sucking up to Carr to gain FCC approval for the merger.
Ruddy’s opposition to the deal “only empowers the left and their mainstream media allies, who can still control programming in America through ownership no matter who is in the White House or running the FCC,” she wrote Tuesday on X.
“Chris Ruddy is misleading President @realDonaldTrump and harming the MAGA movement with his blatant and self-serving lies,” Loomer added.
In a separate post days earlier, she posted documents detailing what she referred to as Ruddy’s “long history of financial contributions to the Clinton Foundation, ties to Qatar, his public anti-Trump statements, including declaring Trump should not run for President again in 2024, and his donations to prominent ‘Get Trump’ Senate Democrats Cory Booker and Mark Warner.”
In response to that attack, Ruddy retweeted a post by Newsmax contributor and PR executive Bryan Leib, who said the network boss “gave over $2 million to political candidates over 20 years” with “99%” going to “conservative GOP candidates.”
“If Loomer thinks Chris Ruddy is so bad, why has she been trying for years to be on Newsmax?” Leib added. “Attacking him and Newsmax is not how we, Republicans, will hold the house in 2026. This infighting must end immediately!”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Ruddy was yet to respond to Loomer’s posts in his own words. The Post has reached out to him for comment.
Fox Television Stations, which operates 28 local stations nationwide, has supported lifting the 39% cap. (It shares a common owner with News Corp., the publisher of The Post.) Newsmax and Ruddy are currently suing Fox News for allegedly maintaining an illegal monopoly and suppressing conservative rivals.
Proponents of removing the 39% cap argue that doing so would allow local TV stations to scale up and gain the leverage to compete with bigger rivals and Big Tech companies for eyeballs – and to push back on directives from Disney and other corporate giants.
Ruddy claims ending the cap would allow “left-leaning broadcast networks” to gain too much power.
Last month, Trump signaled that he agreed with the exec’s take on the situation, writing in a Truth Social post that he would “not be happy” if ending the 39% limit allowed left-wing networks to get bigger.
“NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS. If anything, make them SMALLER!” the president wrote.
In her post criticizing Ruddy, Loomer argued that “Nexstar can also be trusted with a larger market share because the company consistently supports President Trump and Republicans.” She cited donations to Republicans made by Nexstar Chairman Perry Sook.
Loomer added that “Nexstar [is] in an impossible position when it comes to controlling content” because Disney controls exclusive rights to top-rated NFL and college football broadcasts and can threaten to withhold them during spats with local operators.
As The Post reported, Disney’s control over sports rights played a role in Kimmel’s return to the airwaves. The House of Mouse has the ability to withhold essential programming like “Monday Night Football,” which airs both on ABC and Disney’s ESPN cable sports channel.
“@BrendanCarrFCC should trust his gut and not let people like Clinton Foundation donor Chris Ruddy steer him off course. Empower conservative local stations to take on the woke liberal networks,” Loomer wrote.
