To some the presence of Rupert Murdoch, sitting feet away from Donald Trump inside the Oval office, was a signal that the media mogul is one of the President’s new right-hand men.
For News Corp, Murdoch remains a valuable emissary, a figurehead who can maintain relations with a capricious President who is forcing dissenting media organisations to bend the knee.
But while the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI’s Sam Altman enjoy direct access to the President, Murdoch was forced to sit through a tongue-lashing as Trump railed against the Wall Street Journal’s description of his tariff threats against Canada, Mexico and China as the “dumbest trade war in history”.
“I’m gonna have to talk to him (Murdoch, whose News Corp owns the newspaper) about that,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I’ve been right over the Wall Street Journal many times, I will tell you that. I don’t agree with him on some things. Not only is it not dumb, you’re going to see. Every single one of those countries is dying to make a deal.”
Not granted a speaking role while the cameras were present, Murdoch, who sat next to Larry Ellison, founder of software giant Oracle, was there to provide a billionaires’ backdrop to the President’s latest demonstration of brute power.
Insiders said Murdoch appeared more like a “background prop” than a player in a White House where tech titans now have an open door.
Rupert Murdoch, wearing sneakers, and Oracle software founder Larry Ellison sat in the Oval Office as President Trump spoke to reporters (Photo: Getty)Sporting the Hoka sneakers he wore to his marriage to fifth wife Elena Zhukova last June, Murdoch listened in as the President signed executive orders, including one to establish a sovereign wealth fund which could be used to buy TikTok from the Chinese-based ByteDance.
Murdoch and Trump have enjoyed a love-hate relationship since the News Corp boss said he wanted to make the President a “non person” after the 6 January Capitol riot.
Trump hit back saying Murdoch’s Fox News viewers were “leaving in droves”.
Relations improved with Fox News once again providing a reliable platform for the resurgent Trump during last year’s Presidential election.
A News Corp insider said: “Rupert wants the world to still see him as a player but he’s been supplanted by Musk and the tech oligarchs to some extent.
“He looked like a supplicant in the Oval Office, a background prop for the President.”
No longer responsible for the output of his Fox and News Corp empire, having stepped back last year, Rupert was duly flattered by Trump.
He was “a legend in business… in a class by himself” and one of “the most powerful people in the world”, the President said.
“We’ve disagreed before. And I’m sure they (Wall Street Journal) didn’t have any idea what they were talking about,” Trump added.
Dissenting media
Trump has sought to stifle dissent in the media by launching legal action.
The Disney-owned ABC paid $15m (£12.3m) to settle a defamation law suit over false claims that Trump had been “liable for rape”. He was found liable for sexual abuse.
The President is pursuing CBS for $10bn (£8.2bn) over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview during the campaign.
The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post and the LA Times declined to make their traditional candidate endorsement before the election, a decision seen by critics as an attempt not to incur Trump’s wrath should he win.
Despite their conservative leanings, the Murdoch papers are demonstrating their editorial independence by taking regular swipes at the new administration.
Trump’s pardon of the 6 January rioters sent “a rotten message from a president about political violence done on his behalf”, the Journal wrote. The decision to remove security details from his political enemies of was “vindictive.”
The New York Post this week published an editorial stating that Robert F. Kennedy Jr was “absolutely unfit to head the Department of Health and Human Services”.
“The relationship with Trump is always going to be bumpy. As long as Fox News stays supportive, he is less interested in what the papers say,” the insider said.
“As long as Rupert is in the room where it happens, there shouldn’t be any nasty shocks for News Corp,” the insider added.
News Corp declined to say what issues the President and Murdoch discussed when the cameras left the Oval Office. The mogul has been a regular at the White House since a 1961 meeting with President Kennedy.
Murdoch has traditionally used his influence over Prime Ministers and Presidents to help ensure there are no regulatory obstacles to the expansion of his media empire. Now that tech billionaires have Trump’s ear, News Corp is lobbying for stricter regulation of AI to protect its copyrighted content.
Attention has also focused on Murdoch’s choice of casual footwear. Wearing sneakers at a formal event, like a wedding or Oval Office invitation, was the “ultimate power flex,” the New York Times suggested, “a don’t-care play by a master of the universe”.
For the 93-year-old Murdoch, it may just have been a case of putting comfort first.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The photo that suggests Rupert Murdoch still has Donald Trump’s ear )
Also on site :
- World Bank says Saudi Arabia and Qatar have paid off Syria’s outstanding debt
- Yet another docu-series about Deion Sanders is currently in the works
- 'Hocus Pocus' Child Star Looks So Sophisticated in New Red Carpet Photos