RUSH: By the way, the story on Reince Priebus being on his way out comes from Chris Ruddy of NewsMax.com, who is a very, very close friend of the Trumpster. I think he was there with the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and his wife. And he’s telling CNN that Priebus is not doing a good job, and people think, “My gosh, would Ruddy be doing that without Trump’s consent?” So it’s another one supposedly on the block.

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RUSH: Now, I am being told that Chris Ruddy of NewsMax.com is slightly walking back his criticism of Reince Priebus. It seems to be a little bit of a backtrack. Ruddy posted yesterday on Twitter, “Reince just briefed me on new White House plans. Impressive. CNN today were my personal views. I told him I have open mind based on his results.” So whereas it initially looked like… I mean, look, Ruddy is a very, very close friend of the Trumpster. They’re almost inseparable out there. So when Ruddy starts ragging on Reince Priebus, people start thinking that that’s actually Trump.

When Trump doesn’t slap Ruddy down, people think, “Man, Trump’s getting ready to get rid of Priebus.” So Ruddy walks it back a little bit and says, no, it was just my own thoughts when I was on CNN. Reince has now shown me White House plans; they look very good to me. So I guess Ruddy is gonna tell Trump that Priebus’ plans look good now, and that means that Priebus will be safe. I mean, this is how the media reports this stuff. ‘Cause Trump, of course… I think they’re getting ready to say that Trump is almost like Reagan.

“He’s asleep half the time, taking naps, and all these other guys are running the show,” and then they’re gonna report that and Trump’s gonna get mad that everybody thinks he’s not there, that all these other guys are running the show and fire all of them. I mean, that’s what they’re trying to do with Bannon. Putting Bannon on the cover of TIME magazine as the de facto president? Clearly a psyops operation, trying to make it look like… They think Trump’s gonna be sitting there wherever he reads TIME, “What? They think Bannon’s president? Well, I’ll show them,” and he fires Bannon.

Then the next thing sees is that Reince Priebus, somebody thinks Reince Priebus is doing a baggage, but Trump doesn’t know that, so they gotta get rid of Reince. And this is how the media… They are playing it this way in the press. It’s laughable. They paid no attention, really didn’t. They paid no attention to Trump during the campaign, and they paid no attention to Trump’s statements and his agenda, and now that this stuff is starting to be implemented, they’re aghast.

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RUSH: Okay, so I just got an email. I got lots of emails. I just saw it. “Do you think Priebus is in trouble?” No, folks, it’s my whole point. I don’t think Bannon’s in trouble, and I don’t think Priebus is in trouble. This is all manufactured stuff. Here. The first headline I have is: “The Left’s Grand Plan for Steve Bannon: Divide and Conquer.”

The point here is this. Just to reiterate. TIME magazine cover story on Bannon, the real president in hiding, and they know Trump’s ego. Or they think they do. They don’t know Trump at all, and this is what’s fascinating to me. They had every chance in the world to get to know Trump. All they had to do was actually pay attention at his rallies instead of sitting there as a bunch of elitist, condescending people holding everybody there in contempt.

If they would have just sat there and listened, none of what Trump’s doing today would surprise them, it’s the agenda being rolled out. The fact that Trump’s voters have not abandoned him, there’s no mystery to this. This is exactly what they expected to happen. Everything’s on schedule. It’s the Republicans on Capitol Hill that may have some explaining to do with all the talk about delaying Obamacare. The president threw in on that, too, and the tax cuts don’t seem to be happening as quickly as were indicated. That’s where fault lines line lye.

So the media doing the story on Bannon being the real president, the purpose of that is they think they can undermine, get under Trump’s skin. They really think that they can force Trump to fire Bannon out of jealousy. They think Trump is so insecure. And I tell you, to think like this, that somebody like Trump is insecure, you have to have experience with something. I would think many of the people leveling this charge maybe suffer similar insecurities and are simply projecting.

Because the theory is if you go out and build Bannon up and talk about how he’s the real brains and he’s the real policy guy, then Trump’s supposed to sit there and start steaming that people think he’s not in charge, that people think he’s not in control, that people think he’s not number one. And the objective, walk in, “Steve, I’m sorry, everybody thinks you’re running the show, and I can’t have that, you’re gone.” And then the same thing with Priebus.

And here’s this Chris Ruddy of NewsMax, who is very close, very tight with Trump, who goes on CNN and basically said that things are not cool, Priebus is not doing a good job, Trump is not happy. People say, well, Ruddy is very tight with Trump, can’t imagine Ruddy going out and saying something like that without Trump knowing. So then the media says obviously Trump sent Ruddy out to say that, which means that Priebus is next to go, and that’s what they want you to think and everybody else to buy.

But none of this is coming from Trump. Have you noticed it? None of it’s coming from Trump. You hear about it in the media either on the cover of TIME or from Chris Ruddy supposedly who then walked back a little bit his tweet ’cause he tweeted again yesterday that he had since met with Priebus. This is kind of strange, too. Here’s Chris Ruddy of NewsMax saying he met with Priebus, the White House chief of staff, and when Priebus explained the policy agenda, that Ruddy was comforted, oh, okay, that’s better, as though Ruddy is a de facto Trump. So Trump via Ruddy was worried about Priebus, but now that Ruddy thinks it’s okay after having talked to Priebus I guess Trump’s not gonna fire — This is all absurd.

This is what you get when the left really has nothing but psychological operations and warfare type things to try to make you think that this White House is so maladjusted and so incompetent and so unqualified that nobody knows what’s going on over there, and they’re led by this jealous egomaniac who’s as insecure as the day is long. All of this is totally made up, like the fact that all of these rioters and protesters represent the majority of America is totally made up.

And I find it, as I say, I think it’s interesting that this is the best they’ve got. It’s the best they’ve got. And it’s a continuation, in fact, of Hillary’s number one reason to elect her, and that is Trump’s not fit, Trump’s unsuited, Trump’s mentally deranged. And how’d that work out for Hillary? And they think that this is gonna separate Trump’s supporters from Trump? The key thing they have forgotten: The media didn’t make Trump, and that means they can’t destroy Trump.

If you let the media make you, if you are who you are, if you’re a big name, lots of fame, success because the media says you are, they can cancel you out any time they want. But the media has nothing to do with Trump’s success, literally nothing. There’s nothing they can do. But they don’t understand that. I don’t think there’s anybody in media that has a better understanding of Trump’s supporters, who they are, and why they support Trump and what it would take for fissures to appear, but the media are getting even more deranged.

Now Bill Maher and now half the left is out there talking, “you know, we really think Trump’s insane. We really think Trump is mentally unstable. We really think psychologically Trump may be very, very mentally unbalanced. It really is despicable stuff. But that’s all they’ve got.