However, the outbursts also reveal Trump’s underlying weakness and fear. If truth trickles onto the screens of his low-information base, might he lose these voters’ unwavering loyalty? Might his lies not carry him through the next scandal? For him, that would be disastrous.

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The single most important factor in Trump’s war on truth is a compliant right-wing media that will cover for him, attack enemies, obscure truth, make excuses, throw softball questions and denounce the real media for covering his presidency accurately. He needs Fox News and the crew of sycophantic blogs, talk radio hosts and formerly respectable print publications more than they need him. Sure, they’d lose some audience if they deviated from the Trump party line, but Trump might lose his grip on power. The stakes are much higher for Trump than for the intellectually corrupt right-wing media chorus.

Just on a personal level, imagine if Trump could not turn on Fox News any time of day or night to hear his lies and nonsensical views played back to him. If he could not spend endless hours hearing praise and getting stroked by giddy lackeys, he might melt down completely.

I find it unlikely that Trump will break with Fox News in any meaningful way. The question is whether Fox News executives, shareholders and employees decide that they are making money off the anguish of their country and the assault on democratic values and norms. Ultimately, they have to decide whether their business model — stirring up hatred and misleading mostly older, right-wing white audiences — is sustainable and whether they want their legacy to be: Helped make America a worse place.

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The Post reports that Fox is “undergoing a generational change — one that produced another, perhaps more subtle sign of independence from the president.” With the sale of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets to Disney, Fox News becomes part of a new company headed by Lachlan Murdoch. The Post notes, “Among Fox Corp.’s first acts in business: appointing former House speaker Paul D. Ryan to its board of directors.”

Now, as House speaker, Ryan wasn’t one to stand up to Trump. To the contrary, Ryan excused Trump’s behavior and enabled his presidency, only rarely speaking out of school. But maybe this is his chance at redemption. Along with Murdoch, Ryan might make up for the damage he did to the United States by refashioning Fox News from an RT clone into a real news operation. He might actually insist that journalistic standards be upheld by everyone who goes on air. A pipe dream? Probably. Ryan’s hardly a profile in courage. However, if Murdoch ever wants to escape from his father Rupert Murdoch’s shadow, he’ll have to do something more impressive than erecting a state TV operation to enable the most dishonest and authoritarian-minded president in American history. He’d have to do something truly patriotic for the country that made him a multimillionaire — put country above profits and decency over cynicism.