President Donald Trump reportedly called Rupert Murdoch a “piece of s***” after the media mogul’s New York Post mocked the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign.
The Post’s trolling headline “Florida Man Makes Announcement” enraged Trump, according to a new book, Revenge, The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power, by Axios reporter Alex Isenstadt.
The Status newsletter obtained an early copy of the book ahead of its release on Tuesday, revealing that Trump also complained that Murdoch was “so cold.”
It revealed Trump raged to Tucker Carlson about Murdoch’s estranged son, James Murdoch, calling him a “crazy f***ing liberal.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said, “Many of these so-called insider books are a desperate attempt to make money off of President Trump’s name because journalism is a dying industry with reporters peddling lies and selling their souls in order to make a quick buck.”
“These works of fiction either belong in the bargain bin of the fantasy section in a discount bookstore or should be repurposed as tissue paper,” the statement continued.
News Corp., the company that owns the New York Post, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal owner and Trump’s relationship has had several ups and downs over the last few years.
During his first term, Murdoch’s Fox News aired supportive coverage of the president, and show host Sean Hannity reportedly acted as a consultant for the president on policy.
But even then, Murdoch was reported to have described Trump as a “f***ing idiot” over his immigration policies, according to Michael Wolff’s book.
Their relationship was further damaged after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, when Murdoch said he wanted to make Trump a “non-person”, according to emails released during a defamation lawsuit brought against Fox by voting technology group Dominion.
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post have also published articles opposing Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for health secretary, and the Journal has repeatedly attacked Trump’s policies on inflation and tariffs.
Recently, the pair have appeared to repair their relationship, and Trump praised the media boss as an “amazing guy” in a meeting in the White House’s Oval Office in February.
Murdoch and Trump have a long relationship, going back decades.
Murdoch’s Post helped make Trump famous in the 1980s, through coverage of his business deals and lifestyle, with regular mentions of his colorful personal life on the diary pages.
