President Donald Trump has been able to count the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media empire as an ally for the past decade – but the New York Post and Fox News Radio drew a red line on Friday, pushing back on the president’s defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has sparked backlash this week with a series of Russia-U.S. peace talks that went on without Ukrainian representation and his assertion that Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy was a “dictator without elections.”
On Tuesday, Trump went so far as to blame Ukraine for starting its war with Russia, triggered by a 2022 Kremlin-launched invasion of eastern Ukraine.
The New York Post took issue with the framing, condemning Putin with a front-page editorial pleading with Trump to “remember the brutality of Russia’s actions.”
“Trump has a chance to bring an end to this war, to stop the killing. Maybe even win a Nobel Peace Prize,” the right-wing tabloid's Douglas Murray wrote. “But he will not be honored if the peace is an appeasement, one that bows down in the face of evil as it denies obvious truths.”
And the Post wasn’t the only NewsCorp property to push back on Trump’s tenuous narrative of the conflict.
In an interview with Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade on Friday, Trump expressed skepticism about the narrative that Ukraine was a victim of the conflict.
“Russia was attacked – Russia attacked. But there was no reason for them to attack,” Trump conceded, but added that Ukraine had provoked Russia. “Every time I say, 'Oh, it's not Russia's fault,' I always get slammed by the fake news.”
When Kilmeade interjected, claiming massive destruction in Ukraine was “Russia's fault… Putin’s fault,” Trump deflected.
“I get tired of listening to it,” Trump said, adding that Zelenskyy had no right to complain about being left out of peace talks. “I don’t think he’s [Zelenskyy] very important to be at meetings, to be honest.”
