Eyebrows had been raised as billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch was pictured with President Donald Trump on Monday within the Oval Workplace.
The powerhouse behind Fox Information, The Wall Avenue Journal and New York Put up attended a White Home occasion the place Trump signed an government order establishing a U.S. sovereign wealth fund.
The president stated the fund might purchase TikTok from Chinese language-based ByteDance.
With Murdoch simply toes away, the president was requested by a reporter to answer an editorial headline in Friday’s Wall Avenue Journal condemning his tariff coverage for creating “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”
“Not only is it not dumb, you’re going to see every single one of those countries is dying to make a deal,” he stated of the plan to impose import taxes on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese language items. “You know why? Because they’re ripping us off.”
Requested once more later in regards to the editorial, Trump stated he had nice respect for Murdoch however that he disagreed with him “a lot of times.”
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Explaining his pondering on tariffs, Trump added, “Nobody can compete with us because we’re the pot of gold.
“But if we don’t keep winning and keep doing well, we won’t be the pot of gold, and then tariffs won’t be so good for us.
“But when you’re the pot of gold, the tariffs are very good. They’re very powerful.”
Oracle founder and conservative mega-donor Larry Ellison was additionally available.
Murdoch stepped again because the chairman of Fox Corp. and Information Corp. in 2023 however stays a massively influential determine in American media.
His media shops take totally different positions on Trump. Whereas The Wall Avenue Journal has been vital of many Trump choices within the first weeks of his second presidential time period, Fox Information not too long ago ran a section about whether or not his likeness needs to be carved into Mount Rushmore.
Some legacy media have been much less keen to face as much as his second time period, and Murdoch’s look is one other signal of a softer strategy.
“Once upon a time the fourth estate stood outside power and held it to account,” Alan Rusbridger, former editor of The Guardian, stated on the Bluesky social media platform. “Now they’re in the room to oblige with the photo-opportunities.”
Rusbridger additionally pointed to the photograph “proudly” showing within the New York Put up.
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