Explosive new book claims Rupert Murdoch often wishes Trump were dead

Rupert Murdoch often wishes Donald Trump were dead, says a new book by writer Michael Wolff.

The media mogul and chairman of Fox Corporation has not only dismissed the former president as a possible future candidate for the White House, but he now despises Mr. Trump to such a degree that he wishes him gone, according to Mr. Wolff. The fall: the end of Fox News and the Murdoch dynasty.

Mr. Wolff, the author of fire and fury about part of Mr. Trump’s tumultuous tenure in the White House, writes that Mr. Murdoch, 92, became “a frothing 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 expected to be released on Tuesday and an advance copy was obtained by The Guardian.

In addition to Fire and fury, Mr. Wolff also wrote the books Seat And Landslide about Mr. Trump. He has also previously written about Mr Murdoch in The man who owns the news.

In his most recent book, Mr. Wolf suggests he might be “the non-employee journalist who knows (Murdoch) best.”

Mr. Wolff writes that his book is based on “conversations specifically intended for this book, and other conversations that took place over many years…scenes and events that I personally witnessed or experienced recreated with the help of the participants.

After coming down the Trump Tower escalator and entering American politics in the summer of 2015, Mr. Trump struck up a mutually beneficial relationship with Fox News. It hasn’t been without its ups and downs. Most recently, Mr. Trump took aim at Fox on Truth Social for failing to report on polls that show him in a positive light.

Mr. Murdoch’s journey to disliking Mr. Trump has been talked about for years. Part of that trip was his personal support for Fox News being the first network to call Arizona for President Joe Biden during the 2020 election, a call that outraged Mr. Trump and led to protests Personal overtures from Jared Kushner urging Fox News to issue a retraction that never came.

Mr. Wolff writes that in early 2023, what Mr. Murdoch “categorically did not want… was Trump.”

“Of all Trump’s implacable enemies, Murdoch had become a foaming foe. His relatively calm demeanor early in the Trump presidency, where, with a sigh, he could simply call him a ‘fucking idiot,’ had now become a stew of rage and recrimination,” he adds. “Trump’s death became a Murdoch theme: ‘Would we 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 does he eat ?’

Mr. Wolff writes that after Mr. Trump left the White House, Mr. Murdoch “like much of the Republican establishment… had convinced himself that Trump was, ultimately, vulnerable. That his hold on the Republican base and politicians had weakened enough that the time had come to finally kill him.”

But Mr. Trump remains the heavy favorite to be the Republican nominee in 2024, despite 91 criminal charges against him following his four indictments this year.

In a statement to The independenta Fox News spokesperson said: “The fact that this author’s books are being impersonated by Saturday Night Live that’s really all we need to know.

The spokesperson linked to a 2018 SNL sketch in which Fred Armisen depicted Mr. Wolff.

In his 2022 memoirs Breaking History: A White House BriefMr. Kushner wrote of Arizona’s 2020 projection on Fox News.

“This shocking projection brought our momentum to a screeching halt,” Mr. Kushner wrote. “This instantly changed the mood of our campaign leaders, who were struggling to understand the network’s methodology. Many felt that this early call would encourage people looking to play dirty with the vote count in pending swing states.”

He added that “up until that point, Trump’s results were even better than our models predicted in several key states that immediately released results.” Voter turnout was much higher than expected, showing that our massive ground operation worked. We had mobilized our base, which has always been an important factor in elections. But losing Arizona would significantly shorten our path to victory.”

Mr. Kushner wrote that he “called Rupert Murdoch and asked him why Fox News made the call to Arizona before hundreds of thousands of votes were counted. Rupert said he would look into it, and a few minutes later he called back.”

“Sorry, Jared, there’s nothing I can do,” he said, according to Mr. Kushner. “Fox News’ data authority says the numbers are ironclad – he says they won’t be close.”

The former president’s son-in-law wrote that the Trump campaign “had a different view” before adding that “based on the votes remaining to be counted, we believed that Arizona’s outstanding votes would favor Trump and that it would be very tight. After Arizona, however, negative news arrived from other swing states.”

Mr. Kushner wrote that the situation in 2020 was different from 2016, “when it was clear how many outstanding votes each precinct had to count and report in the hours after the polls closed,” and he added that ” 2020 was full of electoral anomalies.”

“As of 1:40 a.m., with 93 percent of the votes counted, Trump was hanging by a thread in Georgia with 50.7 percent, down from his 12.7 percentage point lead earlier in the night “wrote the former presidential advisor. Mr. Trump would lose Georgia, becoming the first Republican to do so since President Bill Clinton won the state in 1992.

In his memoir, Mr. Kushner cited Mr. Trump’s speech in the East Room of the White House on election night, after 2 a.m.

“This is a fraud on the American public,” he said. “It’s a shame for our country. We were preparing to win this election. Frankly, we won this election. Our focus now, therefore, is to ensure integrity for the good of this nation.