Donald Trump’s Bombast Seems to Be Wearing Out Its Welcome

Though Donald Trump still leads the Republican field in national polls, Trump’s ability to command both voter and news media attention simply by being his outlandish, bombastic self is starting to wane. The decline in attention for Trump seems particularly pronounced in the conservative news media outlets that carry influence over many Republican primary voters.

Though many of the mainstream outlets favored by the Republican establishment -- most notably the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal -- have always greeted Trump’s candidacy with a critical, if not disdainful eye, that discomfort has spread to the news media that speak to the populist base of the Republican Party, whose anger at Washington has helped fuel Trump’s rise. Fox News opinion commentators no longer go on breathlessly about Trump’s antics, and conservative talk-radio programs have moved on to fawn over Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).