The Truth About Rush Limbaugh's Relationship With Donald Trump

Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio commentator who brought right-wing radio into the mainstream, died on Feb. 17, 2021 due to lung cancer at the age of 70. He announced he had terminal lung cancer in October 2020. "I am extremely grateful to be able to come here to the studio and to maintain as much normalcy as possible," he said at the time, per NPR. "Thank you so much for your overwhelming encouragement, support, and prayers out there. They absolutely work! Fear not, I plan to hang around a long time to continue to annoy the left."

Limbaugh's wife Kathryn announced the news of Limbaugh's death during his radio show the same morning he died. "For over 32 years, Rush has cherished you, his loyal audience, and always looked forward to every single show. It is with profound sadness that I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer," she said, per NBC News. 

Aside from being a freely speaking and controversial conservative "talk titan," as noted by USA Today, Limbaugh is remembered as a die-hard supporter of former President Donald Trump. On that note, keep scrolling to uncover the truth about Rush Limbaugh's relationship with Donald Trump.

Rush Limbaugh had been a fervent supporter of Donald Trump ever since Trump entered the presidential race in 2015. As the candidates were still battling it out for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, Limbaugh made a lengthy speech as to why Trump was the best candidate.

"The Republican Party doesn't like the Republican base. They don't like conservatism. But there's something else that we've learned ... if you look at the coalition Trump has put together, it is everything that the Republican Party claims they want, and they don't want it with Trump in charge of it," he said on the radio, as reported by The Atlantic. "When we're talking the establishment, they don't like Trump not because he's not conservative. That doesn't matter. The fact that he's not conservative in their minds actually would be a plus," he continued.

In a radio interview with Trump in 2020, Limbaugh denounced the heaps of criticism against Trump as president. "There's nothing wrong with America first. We're the good guys in the world. He's hated and reviled for loving America," he said of Trump's campaign message, per The Independent. He then spoke directly to Trump, telling him, "Your arrival on the scene has been providential ... You're the one person [who can] stop the left from the ... march they're on."

As noted by NBC News, both Rush Limbaugh and former President Donald Trump were born to super successful fathers, favor the military, and have used aggressive rhetoric to get their political points across. Furthermore, they both seem to share the same fight-to-the-end mentality.

Trump was criticized for his longtime refusal to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election, and even after he conceded, he set up The Office of the Former President to carry on his political agenda. Meanwhile, Limbaugh was very outspoken about his support of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, which many still believe Trump incited, despite the U.S. Senate finding him not guilty for the violence. "We're supposed to be horrified by the protesters," Limbaugh said on his radio show, per USA Today. "There's a lot of people out there calling for the end of violence ... lot of conservatives, social media, who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable regardless of the circumstances ... I am glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual tea party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord, didn't feel that way."

Trump presented Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Feb. 4, 2020, one day after he announced his cancer diagnosis. "He is the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet," Trump said of the radio host (per CNN) before thanking him for his "decades of tireless devotion to our country."

Upon hearing the news of his friend and supporter's death, former President Donald Trump told Fox News in a phone interview that Rush Limbaugh was a fighter. "In theory, he could have been gone four months ago, really. He was fighting to the end. He was a fighter," Trump stated, as per Yahoo! News. The former president also noted that Limbaugh had supported him "right from the beginning" in his bid for presidency.

"Rush is irreplaceable, unique. He had an audience that was massive ... He would get up in the show and just talk. He wouldn't take phone calls, where people would call in every two minutes. That's sort of easy to do. He would just talk for two hours or three hours, just talk," Trump recalled about the conservative commentator. "That's not an easy thing to do. I once asked him, I said, 'Do you study for the show?' He said, 'Actually, I study very hard,' which a little bit surprised me. He was a fantastic man, a fantastic talent. People, whether they loved him or not, they respected him. They really did."