Washington Post Influence Plummets in First Year of Trump 2.0 as NY Times Surges, New Data Shows
The Washington Post’s political influence online plummeted in 2025, cratering 64% in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term compared to the heights of his first, new data shows.
The internet traffic data from aggregation site Memeorandum was published Wednesday by Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin newsletter. Memeorandum records the origin point of political news stories gaining momentum online — or what Silver described as tracking “the stories that other people are linking to and talking about.” Wednesday’s data shows the Post significantly fell in cross-linking traction while The New York Times simultaneously ended the year at a visibly opposite high.
According to the data, the Post saw lower visibility, audience engagement and internal stability in the last year, hitting just 5.4% of what Silver called the “mindshare for U.S. politics news coverage,” while the Times originated 14% of Memeorandum’s headlines, giving it the largest share of political news influence among U.S. outlets. Politico ranked second in that department, while the Post placed a distant fourth.
During Trump’s first term, the Post slightly outpaced the Times with the largest share of political news influence among U.S. outlets.
View the interactive graph, which Silver touted as “pretty much the whole story unto itself,” below:
Just a quick newsletter today on the sad state of the Washington Post. This chart tells the story. pic.twitter.com/sTy9Xdp8q9
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 27, 2026
The new data came to light as the Post faces mounting internal challenges. Privately owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos since 2013, the paper expects a round of newsroom layoffs in the coming month.
Scrutiny around the paper’s political coverage intensified after Bezos blocked a planned October 2024 endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump. The move prompted backlash from readers and staff and led to the cancellation of roughly 250,000 digital subscriptions, about 10% of its base. The Post, which reportedly lost around $100 million in 2024, has since overhauled leadership, reoriented its editorial mission toward “personal liberties and free markets” and seen the departure of high-profile columnists and veteran reporters.
For months, readers have questioned Bezos’ supposed allegiance to Trump. The tech billionaire attended the president’s second inauguration, and there has been speculation that coverage of the sitting president is influenced by the owner’s personal views.
On Monday, Post journalists publicly urged Bezos to support the paper’s foreign coverage as layoffs looms. After canceling plans to send reporters overseas to cover the 2026 Winter Olympics, the paper agreed to send a reduced team of four journalists. But staff maintains that the cutbacks, coupled with Bezos’ political ties and editorial changes, have created a heightened sense of urgency and uncertainty across the newsroom.
Read more on that unrest below.
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