Donald Trump was reportedly furious at Rupert Murdoch after the New York Post mocked his 2024 re-election campaign announcement.
The Murdoch-owned newspaper reported the launch of his ultimately successful campaign with the headline “Florida Man Makes Announcement," which prompted Trump to call the media mogul a "piece of s--t," according to Axios reporter Alex Isenstadt's new book Revenge, The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power, reported The Daily Beast.
"The Status newsletter obtained an early copy of the book ahead of its release on Tuesday, revealing that Trump also complained that Murdoch was 'so cold,'" The Beast reported. "It revealed Trump raged to Tucker Carlson about Murdoch’s estranged son, James Murdoch, calling him a 'crazy f---ing liberal.'"
Murdoch reportedly described Trump as a "f---ing idiot" over his immigration policies, according to author Michael Wolff's 2018 book Fire and Fury, although his Fox News network generally aired positive coverage of his first term in office.
The Jan. 6 insurrection turned Murdoch away from Trump, whom he vowed to make a “non-person,” according to emails revealed during a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, but they've seemingly patched up their relationship since he won re-election.
“Many of these so-called insider books are a desperate attempt to make money off of President Trump’s name because journalism is a dying industry with reporters peddling lies and selling their souls in order to make a quick buck," said White House communications director Steven Cheung. “These works of fiction either belong in the bargain bin of the fantasy section in a discount bookstore or should be repurposed as tissue paper."