Matt Drudge's eponymous news aggregator, The Drudge Report, linked to an op-ed as one of its lead headlines on Monday, asking "IS THE DON BEING BLACKMAILED?" The headline harked back to the heyday of the Trump-Russia scandal, which was fueled by President Donald Trump calling for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's campaign and widespread allegations that the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia in 2016. The op-ed Drudge linked to was penned in June of 2025 with the headline, "The idea that the Kremlin has kompromat on Trump seems increasingly plausible." The piece by Irish Times columnist and former Irish Minister of Justice Michael McDowell warned that if Trump "capitulates to Putin on Ukraine, it will grossly and perhaps fatally betray the principles on which Nato was founded."