(New York) Clown. Charlatan. Imbecile. Fucking moron.
Posted at 7:00 p.m.
According to the first and last of the books devoted to the presidency of Donald Trump, those of the journalists Michael Wolff and Maggie Haberman, the former tenant of the White House inspired these insulting words to a man to whom he nevertheless devotes the greatest admiration. . This is Rupert Murdoch, boss of the NewsCorp media empire, of which Fox News is a part, the wall street journal and the New York Post.
However, this strange relationship may have reached a breaking point last week. And the expected announcement of Donald Trump’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election could put it further to the test on Tuesday. Especially after the outcome of the battle for the Senate, where some of the neophyte candidates chosen by the former president probably cost the majority to the Republicans.
The question, then, is whether Rupert Murdoch’s mainstream outlets will continue their coordinated attack – at least on the surface – against the owner of Mar-a-Lago. The answer could be decisive for the future of the Grand Old Party.
“Trump is the Republican Party’s biggest loser,” ruled the wall street journal in a caption to an editorial published two days after the midterm elections.
“He is the greatest vote-blocker in modern American history,” added a conservative columnist for the New York Posta sassy tabloid whose front page featured a cartoon of Donald Trump in the form of an egg perched on a wall.
IMAGE FROM THE NEW YORK POST TWITTER ACCOUNT
The one of New York Post November 10, 2022
“Trumpty Dumpty,” headlined the Post by accompanying the caricature with a text parodying the famous English nursery rhyme: “Don (who failed to build a wall) took a big fall – will the men of the Republican Party be able to pick up the pieces?” »
Fox News, which has done so much to help Donald Trump win the presidency and stay there, turned the iron in the wound by singing the praises of Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was re-elected with a bang.
“He has almost certainly become the rallying point for all members of the Republican Party who want to go beyond President Trump,” former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich opined on the conservative channel.
For the audience
Judging by his interventions on Truth Social, Donald Trump greeted these criticisms with rage. He not only attacked Ron DeSantis, whose own presidential ambitions infuriate him, but also NewsCorp, accusing the group of advocating for the governor of Florida.
But he reserved his sharpest points for Fox News.
“For me, Fox News has always been a lost cause, even in 2015-2016 when I started my ‘journey’, but then they’re really gone,” he wrote.
That still remains to be seen. Because this is not the first time that Rupert Murdoch’s media have tried to distance themselves from Donald Trump. “We should dump this guy,” the tycoon said after the 2020 presidential election, according to Confidence Manthe book of the journalist of the New York Times Maggie Haberman.
Fox News did not follow this motto for very long. After watching some of its audience scurry off to competitor Newsmax, Rupert Murdoch’s channel set out to self-propagate unsubstantiated claims about Dominion Voting’s ‘stolen’ election and ‘rigged’ voting machines Systems.
Fox News viewers will therefore have a say in how the channel treats Donald Trump after his potential presidential candidacy is announced. Therefore, it will influence the orientation of the Republican Party.
Ditto for the star hosts of Fox News, the Tucker Carlsons, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, who did not really participate in the group shots on Donald Trump last week. Carlson, for example, felt that the former president “certainly wasn’t the sole cause of anything.”
A “fool” and a “great”
What about Rupert Murdoch? Her relationship with Donald Trump took a turn after the 2016 election, as Maggie Haberman explains in her book.
PHOTO MIKE SEGAR, REUTERS ARCHIVES
US media magnate Rupert Murdoch in 2017
“Rupert Murdoch considered Trump a fool based on their interactions in New York, but he had long dreamed of being close to an American president; for a time, he and Trump spoke three to four times a week. Murdoch was satisfied to have the ear of the president,” writes the journalist.
And Trump was happy to have Murdoch’s attention, tangible proof of his own success.
In fire and fury, his book on Donald Trump, Michael Wolff recounts a scene that takes place in Trump Tower the Saturday following his election. He tries to retain the supporters who have come to congratulate him. Rupert Murdoch is supposed to show up, but he’s late, “very late.”
“He’s one of the greats,” repeats the president-elect to his guests who are eyeing the exit. “Really, he is one of the greats, the last of the greats. You have to stay to see it. »
What some guests understand is that Donald Trump wants his guests to see him in the presence of Rupert Murdoch, who has long considered him “at best” “the clown prince” among New Yorkers rich and famous, according to Michael Wolff.
Six years later, has Rupert Murdoch really decided to finally dump Donald Trump? The future of the Republican Party depends in part on this response.
No to Holocaust deniers
In all of the key states where they ran in midterm elections, Holocaust deniers in the 2020 presidential election failed to win the positions of Secretary of State. This position would have allowed them to play a crucial role in certifying the results of the 2024 presidential election.
Mark Finchem, a member of the far-right group Oath Keepers, is part of this group. Present in Washington on January 6, 2021, he was beaten in Arizona by Democrat Adrian Fontes. Holocaust deniers of the 2020 presidential election have also suffered defeat in the gubernatorial elections of at least three key states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Republican Kari Lake, another Holocaust denier, is trailing slightly in the race for governor of Arizona, another key state.