Fox News' CEO doesn't hold back his criticism of Trump in private: report

While Fox News isn't exactly known for being overly critical of Donald Trump, the network's chief executive has openly criticized Trump, saying he disagrees with how the former president behaves, sources tell CNN.

Lachlan Murdoch reportedly thinks Trump running for president again would be bad for the country, yet at the same time he realizes that the majority of his viewers support Trump.

CNN's Oliver Darcy writes that "the dichotomy helps explain why the right-wing channel continues to be supportive of Trump, despite recent reporting that indicates the Murdochs are privately disillusioned with him."

"Last month, The New York Times and The Washington Post publishedstories indicating that the Murdochs were quietly giving Trump the cold shoulder by emphasizing him less in coverage on Fox," Darcy writes.

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While some wonder if the Murdochs could potentially shift Fox in an anti-Trump direction, the network's coverage of the recent FBI raid on Trump's Palm Beach compound has shattered that notion, with the theme of most the network's coverage suggesting that the raid was an example of federal agencies being politically weaponized against Trump.

"So what should we make of all of this? Perhaps it is that when Trump is not in the news, we may see the personal views of the Murdochs shine through coverage on Fox, with their television megaphone choosing to spotlight other conservative politicians as the future of the Republican Party," writes Darcy. "But when Trump is at the center of the news cycle, it puts Fox in an untenable business position: If the network condemns Trump, it loses its audience. So, in those moments, the default position will be to air supportive coverage of him."