Donald Trump has said that he does “not believe” that he “forced Rupert Murdoch into retirement”.
The chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp announced in a memo to staff on Thursday that he was retiring from his position at the helm of his right-wing empire and handing over the reins to his son Lachlan.
“Many people are saying that, ‘You forced Rupert Murdoch into retirement!’ I do not believe this is so, but while we’re at it, how about getting rid of ‘Democrat’ Mitch McConnell, who gives the Radical Left Lunatics, together with his small band of automatic ‘yes’ votes, EVERYTHING they want. There is ZERO Republican Leadership in the United States Senate. MAGA!!!” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning.
Mr Trump and Mr Murdoch have endured something of a notorious love-hate relationship for years.
They were close allies during the 2016 presidential election campaign, with the media mogul welcoming him on Fox News and helping to propel his career from businessman to politician.
While initially hesitant to Mr Trump’s candidacy, Mr Murdoch was elated at having a president he could get on the phone at any time.
In December 2017, about a year into the Trump presidency, The New York Times reported that Mr Murdoch and Mr Trump spoke about once a week.
“In the 44 years since he bought his first newspaper in the United States, he has largely failed to cultivate close ties to an American president. Until now,” the paper reported, adding that Mr Trump at the time viewed Mr Murdoch “as one of his closest confidants”.
The two men had a relationship for decades before Mr Trump entered politics, as Mr Murdoch was a power player in New York tabloids.
“Trump was interested in specifically Rupert’s ownership of The Post, because Page Six is very important to his rising stature in New York City and branding efforts,” then-Trump advisor Roger Stone told The Times in 2017.
But the relationship soured during the 2020 election when the former president took issue with Fox News correctly calling Arizona for Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
This week, a new book by Michael Wolff claimed that Mr Murdoch despises Mr Trump to such a degree that he wishes him dead.
Mr Wolff, the author of Fire and Fury about part of MrTrump’s tumultuous White House tenure, writes that Mr Murdoch, 92, has grown into “a frothing-at-the-mouth” adversary of Mr Trump, 77.
Thoughts shared by Mr Murdoch include “This would all be solved if … ” as well as “How could he still be alive, how could he?” according to Mr Wolf. The book is set to be published on Tuesday and an advance copy was obtained by The Guardian.
Following Mr Trump’s descent from the Trump Tower escalator and entrance into US politics in the summer of 2015, he formed a mutually beneficial relationship with Fox News, which hasn’t been without its ups and downs. More recently, Mr Trump has been targeting Fox on Truth Social for supposedly not reporting on polls that show him in a positive light.
Hours before Mr Murdoch’s announcement, Mr Trump wrote: “Why won’t Fox (Fox & Friends!) show the National Poll that THEY just did. They refuse to put it up, even after spending all of that money. SHOW THE POLL!!! If they don’t show it, I’ll put it up later!”
Mr Wolff writes that at the beginning of 2023, what Mr Murdoch “adamantly didn’t want … was Trump”.
“Of all Trump’s implacable enemies, Murdoch had become a frothing-at-the-mouth one. His relatively calm demeanor from the early Trump presidency where, with a sigh, he could dismiss him merely as a ‘f****** idiot’ had now become a churning stew of rage and recrimination,” he adds. “Trump’s death became a Murdoch theme: ‘We would all be better off …?’ ‘This would all be solved if …’ ‘How could he still be alive, how could he?’ ‘Have you seen him? Have you seen what he looks like? What he eats?’”
Mr Wolff writes that following Mr Trump’s departure from the White House, Mr Murdoch “like much of the Republican establishment … had convinced himself that Trump was, finally, vulnerable. That his hold on the base and on Republican politicians had weakened enough that now was the time to kill him off, finally”.
Following the 2020 election, Mr Murdoch said Mr Trump was going “increasingly mad” amid his lies that the election had been stolen, according to legal filings in the defamation lawsuit against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump accused Mr Murdoch of attempting to sabotage his campaign via his media outlets.
“Fox News and the Wall Street Journal fight me because Murdoch is a globalist,” Mr Trump said in a video shared on Truth Social last month. “And I am America First. It’s very simple, and it will always be that way, so get used to it.”
