Vice President JD Vance jetted off to Montana for a mystery meeting this week with conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
The vice president met Tuesday with the 94-year-old Fox News boss, his son Lachlan Murdoch and other network executives at the 340,000-acre property near Yellowstone National Park, two sources told the Associated Press.
"It’s not clear why the vice president addressed the group or what they spoke about," the AP reported. "The vice president’s office does not release a schedule for Vance and did not offer advance notice of the trip, so the surprise arrival of Air Force Two in Butte, Montana, set off local speculation as his motorcade was seen driving away."
Air Force Two arrived in Butte around 2:30 p.m. and Vance's motorcade headed toward the Dillon area. The vice president and his wife Usha went for a hike after the meeting before their plane departed after dark.
President Donald Trump, who has been displeased with the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal's coverage of his second administration, had lunch with the vice president on Wednesday, according to his public schedule.
Murdoch, who officially stepped down head of Fox News and News Corp. in 2023 and handed off control to his son, was present at Trump’s inauguration and was spotted earlier this year in the Oval Office, but the president has frequently complained about the Journal's coverage as "rotten" and occasionally about Fox News.
“The Wall Street Journal is China-oriented,” he posted last month. “And they’re really bad for this country.”
Murdoch purchased the Beverhead Ranch for $200 million in 2021 from the Koch family with his then-wife Jerry Hall, and the property near the Idaho border spans 50 miles from north to south and features a 28-mile creek stuffed with trout.
