The sharp rift between Murdoch and Trump came after the Republican party’s disappointing performance in this week’s midterm elections — which many right-wing analysts blamed on the former president — and is tantalizing in the landscape of conservative media and politics. Using his publications as stationery, Murdoch moved first. The New York Post’s front page on Thursday featured an oversized image of the former president falling off a brick wall, an allusion to the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, with the tagline: “Don (who couldn’t build a big wall) had a great fall.” The Wall Street Journal, also owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, ran an editorial the same day with the headline: “Now it’s failed in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.” The paper’s lead writers wrote: “Trump screwed up the 2022 election. . . has led the Republicans to one political fiasco after another.” Even Fox News, the cable channel that has held Trump in a tight embrace for years, published a story on its website citing conservatives calling on the party to “move on” from the former president. On Thursday night, Trump responded with a furious statement in which he cited the “no-longer-great New York Post” and blamed it and other Murdoch outlets for lining up behind DeSantis, the Florida governor who appears to be the new target of Murdoch’s attention. . The controversy erupted just days before the former president is expected to announce his intention to run for the White House again in 2024. “NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal and the no-longer-great New York Post. . . it’s all about Gov. Ron DeSanctimonious, an average DEMO Governor with great PR,” Trump wrote in the complex statement. He attacked DeSantis for being unfaithful and “playing games” and criticized the governor’s allegedly deft handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which brought him to national attention among conservatives. A former News Corp employee said of Murdoch’s apparent shift from Trump to De Sandys: “Rupert likes to pick political winners and he’s good at it.” Rodney Tiffen, a University of Sydney professor and author of a Murdoch biography, said: “A lot of commentators on Fox were very bullish on Trump, and some probably still are, but what [do] do the Murdochs feel in their hearts? I’m not sure they have a heart. They have a calculation engine for what is realistically best.” The prominent media mogul of his day and the developer-turned-politician never had much of a relationship. Murdoch’s support for Trump has been inconsistent and sometimes reluctant. The front page of the November 9 New York Post The front page of the November 10 New York Post At a dinner hosted by Ivanka Trump in 2015, Trump told Murdoch he planned to run for president, and the media billionaire “didn’t even look up from his soup,” according to a New York Times report. In July 2015, when Trump entered the Republican primary with a speech complaining about Mexican rapists, Murdoch tweeted: “When will Donald Trump stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the entire country?” In Michael Wolff’s account of the Trump White House, Fire and Fury, he quotes Murdoch in late 2016, shortly after the presidential election, calling the incoming president “a fucking idiot.” But as Trump’s rise became inevitable, the two formed an alliance that benefited both. In his own book, Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law and adviser, claims to have smoothed over tensions between the pair. With Fox News, in particular, Trump has found a powerful megaphone to reach America’s conservative base. The network, in turn, gained access to the star of a new populist movement that transcended the traditional Republican party. In 2016, the year Trump took office, Murdoch’s Fox News became the most-watched basic cable channel in all of American television, surpassing even prime-time drama and entertainment shows. Relations soured during the 2020 election when Fox News predicted Joe Biden would beat Trump in the state of Arizona, making the call days before other networks. Fox News chief Suzanne Scott called Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son and Fox Corp chief executive, to let him know they were making the call in Arizona, and Lachlan did not intervene, according to people familiar with the matter. Recommended Lachlan, Rupert’s heir apparent, has “never been a fan” of Trump, a person close to him said. Arizona’s move angered many Trump supporters and the president himself, prompting him to ask friends: “Why do you think Rupert attacks me so often?” However, the latest split is different as Murdoch appears to have found a new right wing standard bearer in DeSantis. The day before Trumpty Dumpty was published, the front page of the New York Post declared that Florida’s governor was “DeFuture.” And an opinion column published by Fox News this week argued that “Ron DeSantis is the new leader of the Republican Party.” Even before the midterms, an associate of DeSantis claimed Murdoch was among a group of right-wing players who appeared to be switching allegiances. “If [Murdoch] feels like the future will be DeSantis, you’ll be seeing more and more of his properties. . . start showing [him]” said the former News Corp executive. The key to deciphering the relationship will be how Fox News responds if and when Trump hits the network, the person added: “That will be a telltale sign.” Tiffen said, “They’ve jumped on somebody with a similar set of appeals that Trump has, without all the baggage. And someone who looks like a winner. Which is always very important to Murdoch.” On his set Thursday night, Trump insisted he would prevail with or without Murdoch’s support: “This is just like 2015 and 2016, an attack on the media (Collusion!), when Fox News fought me to the until I win, and then they couldn’t be nicer or more supportive.”
