Rupert Murdoch Has A Scathing Message For Donald Trump

In many ways, one could argue that for conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump is good for business. As the owner of the media conglomerate News Corp, whose flagships include Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, coverage of Trump and his antics bolstered viewership for the former throughout Trump's term in office — enough so that ratings slumped immediately following President Joe Biden's inauguration in January. Ratings aside, many of Fox News' regular pundits have continued to report on (and express loyalty for) Trump, despite his seemingly never-ending tirade over his unsubstantiated and factually deflated claims of election fraud in November 2020. (As recently as late October, the network aired a weeklong special masterminded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson which attempted to argue that the Capitol insurrection in January was a "false flag" operation, with the goal of shifting blame to a nebulous, caricatured "deep state," rather than the hundreds of right-wing rioters whose actions were extensively documented.)

But even if Trump was once a financial boon for Murdoch's media enterprises, it appears even the Australian-born billionaire and media baron has his limits. And now, according to recent reports, Murdoch has gone on the record with a message to Trump over the ex-commander-in-chief's continuous, sputtering loop of baseless fraud claims — and, suffice it to say, it seems Murdoch has had more than enough of it. 

As Deadline reported on November 17, Rupert Murdoch dedicated a portion of News Corp's annual shareholder's meeting to address an elephant in the room: Donald Trump's unsubstantiated voter fraud claims, and Fox News' dedication to obsessively covering (and championing) them. "The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or welfare or economic opportunity," Murdoch, who currently serves as the conglomerate's chairman, stated in his address to shareholders. "It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past. The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future."

This is hardly the first time Murdoch has criticized Trump's behavior within the political sphere. In October 2020, Murdoch went as far as to disclose to members of his inner circle his prediction that President Joe Biden would ultimately win the November 2020 election, stating, per an anonymous source for the Daily Beast that Trump's (then hypothetical) loss was of Trump's own making. Whether or not Murdoch's remarks will have any effect on coverage of Trump going forward remains to be seen.