It seems the Murdoch empire is done with Donald Trump, as the media giant celebrates his rival’s win.
Ron DeSantis, Mr Trump’s former ally, celebrated a win in the US midterm elections by securing his second term as Florida’s governor.
The two Republicans once enjoyed an amicable relationship, until rumours started to swirl that Mr DeSantis would run for president in 2024.
Although Mr DeSantis has not confirmed his presidential ambitions for 2024, perhaps feeling the heat, last week Mr Trump referred to Florida’s governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious”.
There has been no official announcement yet, but it is anticipated Mr Trump will also run – meaning the two could face off in the Republican primaries.
Mr Trump is still up in the polls; however, many consider Mr DeSantis to be his only rival among the Republicans.
It appears Rupert Murdoch, who owns US publications such as Fox News and The New York Post, has picked who he will be backing come 2024 – and it’s not Mr Trump.
Murdoch tells ‘Toxic Trump’ to ‘Scram’
“DeFUTURE,” proclaimed the front page of The New York Post on Wednesday.
Several pages are dedicated to Mr DeSantis, the “young GOP star” following his victory.
But Thursday’s cover will take it even further.
On Thursday, Mr Trump styled as Humpty Dumpty, or “Trumpty Dumpty”, as The Post put it, will grace the front of the tabloid.
“Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall – can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?” The New York Post wrote.
Tweet from @katzish
The advanced front page accompanied an opinion piece from John Podhoretz that analysed how Mr Trump “sabotaged” the Republican Party in the midterms.
The pieces argues Mr Trump is the “political equivalent of a can of Raid” and outlined how many candidates who were backed by Mr Trump failed to win their elections.
“Yo, Toxic Trump: Scram,” Podhoretz finished off his piece.
Fox News lamented that Mr DeSantis was the “biggest winner” of the midterms and Mr Trump was the “biggest loser”.
Republicans ‘move on’ without Trump
In Liz Peek’s opinion piece for Fox News, she argued Mr Trump’s “hand-picked loyalist candidates” who failed to beat Democrats may have cost the GOP control of the Senate.
She argued the Republican Party was ready to move on without Mr Trump and instead threw her support behind Mr DeSantis.
“DeSantis won because he embraced Trumpian policies, stood firm against the woke mob, led his state through the pandemic with brilliance and, more recently, managed the horrific damage done by Hurricane Ian with great competence,” she wrote.
A source who is familiar with how Mr Murdoch runs his media companies told CNN the pro-DeSantis, anti-Trump coverage was “not an accident”.
CNN noted the coverage does not mean Murdoch’s media empire will completely turn on Mr Trump.
“Rather, it suggests that Murdoch might use his influence to tilt the scales and push Republicans toward DeSantis if the two squared off in a 2024 Republican primary,” CNN said.
The Murdoch empire didn’t just suddenly dump Mr Trump.
The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal had both run editorials in the past criticising the former president following the January 6 insurrection.
Trump denies ‘tiff’
Despite assigning Mr DeSantis a nickname, Mr Trump claims there is no “tiff” between the two of them.
He even said he voted for Mr DeSantis in the election.
A Trump campaign insider said the former president was “going to attack” Mr DeSantis if he ran in the 2024 election, The Guardian reported.
In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump said he was still up in the polls, but warned Mr DeSantis could “hurt himself” if he stood in his way of the Republican nomination.
“I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly,” Mr Trump said.
“I don’t think it would be good for the party.”
