Chris Ruddy and Newsmax went all-in on Trump. Now they might pay a price for it.

Newsmax anchors read lengthy statements on air, and the website printed the clarification statement in full — denying its previous fanciful claims about George Soros or Nancy Pelosi exerting control over the firms. Last week, Newsmax also apologized to a Dominion employee for alleging that he had rigged the company’s voting machines. Yet Newsmax continued to book MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of Trump’s most ardent fans and a stubborn adherent to baseless claims of election fraud. In one Lindell appearance, he immediately veered off topic to claim he possessed “100 percent proof” of “all the election fraud with these Dominion machines.” After Newsmax’s Bob Sellers tried and failed to interrupt Lindell to read the prescribed warning letter, the anchor walked off the set in frustration. Eventually, talks with Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle cooled around the time of the attack on the Capitol. One person close to the conversation, though, said things fell apart for reasons more complicated than the Jan. 6 disaster. It didn’t help that Ruddy had publicly boasted about the company’s value amid its surging ratings. And yet ultimately, those ratings never brought Newsmax closer to profitability. In 2020, its best year ever, the station posted $26.4 million in revenue vs. $27.9 million in operating expenses, according to Kagan Research, compared with the more than $1 billion that Fox News could claim in profits.