Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was spotted Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, according to The New York Times, signaling a potential warming of relations with former President Donald Trump, who was officially named as the Republican Party’s nominee for president Monday despite a well reported, years-long lobbying campaign against his candidacy in the recently retired Murdoch’s media properties. The relationship between the pair of billionaires seemingly first grew icy in 2020—but reached new lows when Murdoch threw his considerable weight behind Trump’s rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in the 2024 Republican primary. It was recently reported that Murdoch had been privately lobbying Trump to pick North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as his running mate—advice Trump ultimately ignored in picking Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. Donald Trump Jr. summed up his father’s feelings in an interview with Axios Tuesday, saying: “There was a time where if you wanted to survive in the Republican Party, you had to bend the knee to him or to others. I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”
