Clay Travis and Buck Sexton are all-in on Trump -- again
Hosts' commentary during and after CNN Town Hall shows acquiescence to MAGA base
Shortly after last fall’s midterm elections, — when Clay Travis wrongfully predicted a “red tsunami” — we wrote about how Clay and Buck Sexton were soon to find themselves in a difficult spot with regards to throwing their support behind either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis in the coming Republican primary.
If there was still any question as to where their loyalty lies, last night proved the answer.
After months of flirtations with DeSantis’ potential candidacy and countless MAGA listeners disparaging them with show phone calls and social media posts threatening boycotts, Clay and Buck are all in with Trump — again.
Minutes into Wednesday night’s town hall on CNN, Sexton and Travis were doting over the former guy’s “showmanship” and “entertainment”, qualities that only unserious people look for their in their favored political candidates.
After the event, Clay tweeted six times in support of Trump in the form of videos clips, photos, and polls that tell us nothing because 95% of his followers are far-right zealots. For his part, Buck tweeted three times, mostly gnashing his teeth at CNN.
As shown above, Trump even re-”truthed” Clay, something we’ll likely hear about for weeks to come on the radio show.
This is a departure from the last several months, when Clay and Buck frequently levied blame at Trump for the midterm disappointments and direction of the party at-large, suggesting DeSantis might be the new voice needed to take back the White House in 2024. They even had the decidedly anti-Trump Ann Coulter on the show and (mostly) allowed her to verbally demolish the former president for over 30 minutes. But between lopsided primary polling and revolts from their own listener base, it’s clear now that a message has been delivered to both men.
Get on board — or be left behind.
The breaking point appeared to come in April, when the duo announced on the air that that they gave Trump “a direct line to the studio” and that “he might call at any time between 12 and 3 on weekdays”. This was a two-fold stunt: boost sagging listenership and get back in the good graces of the party’s leader after disparaging him for months.
He never called.
A week later, Buck Sexton practically begged Trump to call the show to discuss his candidacy and mounting legal troubles: “Trump’s team, call in! Trump has our … he’s got the direct line. Trump, call in! We want to hear from you on this.”
The line didn’t ring then, either.
Suddenly, two men who previously enjoyed being part of Trump’s orbit (albeit, at arm’s length), were being shut out because they dared speak against the kingmaker. Since extending those olive branches in April, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton haven’t spoken ill of Trump in a single segment, only promoting his candidacy and strategizing his path to the White House next November. Concurrently, almost all discussion of Ron DeSantis on the show has also ceased, despite his legal battle against Disney continuing.
It remains to be seen if Trump will once again embrace the two hosts during his upcoming campaign. In the short-term, expect relentless praise for him during Thursday’s program coming off of the town hall — about what a “fighter” he was against host Kaitlan Collins and how much how much he can appeal to independents this time around.
Clay and Buck have clearly made their decision. The question remains, however, have they done enough to regain Donald Trump’s trust?