In a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, Jones appeared torn.

“He's done so good on moving for tax cuts, demonizing and trying to overthrow Obamacare, and getting all the jobs back, and the stock market, and killing TPP — the list goes on and on — that I say, 'Hey, this is really great,' ” Jones said. “But it is paradoxical, on the other side. You know, he's saying go after WikiLeaks, when WikiLeaks got him elected. That's a stab in the back. And all this other craziness. And I don't even know what to say, at this point, about that because it's just such a flip-flop.”

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Jones went on for a while about WikiLeaks. Then, suddenly upbeat, he gave himself and his fellow Trump supporters a pep talk: “The good news is Trump, for the nationalist brand, is very strong. Nationalism is spreading all over the world. Very exciting things are happening. This is a great time to be alive. And so we can't just become demoralized if Trump starts going sideways or off his trajectory some.”

For Trump, it is critical that Jones and other backers in the conservative media continue to look on the bright side — and continue to tell the president's base to do the same.

While Trump has delivered a conservative Supreme Court justice and presided over an increase in consumer confidence, he also has given supporters reasons to feel disenchanted. He isn't trying to “lock her up” (or even appoint the special prosecutor he threatened to sic on Hillary Clinton). He has decided that China is not a currency manipulator, after all, and that NATO is “no longer obsolete.” His first attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare wasn't really a full repeal and failed anyway. And he backed off a demand that any budget deal struck this week include funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Despite these reversals and shortcomings, Trump's base is standing by him. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll this week, 96 percent of the president's voters said they would cast ballots for him again.

No single factor can fully explain loyalty, but positive spin in the conservative press is surely a big one. Rush Limbaugh lamented on his radio show Tuesday that “it looks like President Trump is caving on his demand for a measly $1 billion in the budget for his wall on the border with Mexico.” Yet when a longtime listener, “Tim from Detroit,” called in to say that Trump “will be making a grave mistake if he compromises on this,” Limbaugh urged patience.

“Now, wait,” the host said. “He’s not compromising on the wall. He’s saying he’ll delay funding until September so as to avoid a government shutdown.”

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Sean Hannity struck the same chord on Fox News Thursday night: “He's not perfect. Nobody's perfect. But he's done a really good job of keeping his promises.”

The message Trump voters have heard over and over is that their man deserves a long leash. So far, they seem willing to give him one. But things could change if commentators like Jones, Limbaugh and Hannity were to turn on Trump.

The White House seems to understand the stakes. On Monday, the president hosted a reception for about 50 conservative media members, fielding questions while providing an opportunity to mingle with top officials, including chief of staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

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The event was conceived as a way “to appreciate the folks who have really covered the president fairly and covered a lot of issues ignored by mainstream media,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told Politico.

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Politico reported Thursday that Trump has met privately in the Oval Office with Matt Drudge, the king of news aggregation. Also Thursday, as part of a press tour to mark 100 days in office, Trump granted interviews to The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Reuters — after he sat down with the conservative Washington Examiner a day earlier.

Trump taped a single TV interview that will air in prime time Friday, on the eve of his 100th day. The lucky network is, of course, Fox News.

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Every president works to stay in the good graces of the news outlets favored by his base, but Trump is in an unusual position. A new president typically enjoys a honeymoon period in which people who did not vote for him nevertheless say they approve of his performance. Barack Obama's approval rating at this early stage of his presidency was 69 percent, for example; Trump's is 42 percent. Just 7 percent of Hillary Clinton voters approve of Trump's job performance.