Donald Trump now counts 3 media moguls among his top advisers

Donald Trump with daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

last updated 18 August 2016

Donald Trump's relationship with the news media is... complicated. In lieu of campaign spending, Trump has relied heavily on the press to keep him in the news and disseminate his message, but he now regularly denounces the press as "corrupt" and biased against him. As of Wednesday, however, Trump has three top advisers who also happen to have a lot of experience running media outlets. Breitbart News Chairman Stephen Bannon, who runs an unabashedly pro-Trump website, will play the most visible role, as Trump's new campaign chief executive.

Recently ousted Fox News Chief Roger Ailes has taken a more behind-the-scenes advisory position in recent days, after several meetings between Ailes and Trump earlier this summer (and reports of pressure from Ailes at Fox to cover Trump more favorably). The third media mogul is Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Trump's de facto campaign manager between Corey Lewnadowski's firing in June and the hire Tuesday of Kellyanne Conway. Kushner owns The New York Observer, which unlike Breitbart News and Fox News is not particularly conservative. Kushner has played a big role in Trump's campaign for months — it was his antagonistic relationship with Lewandowski that was the final straw for Trump's children, CNN reports — and has apparently written some of Trump's campaign speeches.

If you are counting on the news media as a major component of your campaign, it probably makes sense to get the advice of people who know a lot about getting the media to tell your side of a story, making sure people hear that story, and connections to it that happen. It also makes sense if, as growing speculation suggests, you plan to turn your unsuccessful presidential campaign into a lucrative media organization.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.