“A successful job”. “STUNN AS A ROCK.” “I have to go somewhere else until this LOSER is off the air.” Donald Trump spent election night glued to Fox News, furiously attacking his favorite television channel as his party suffered a historic defeat.
The US president complained about the sound of a Fox host’s voice, texted another during a live broadcast asking them to attack him and accused the network of turning against him.
But before the dust settled on an election that brought Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire appeared to be contemplating life after Trump.
Shortly after midnight, Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal editorial board declared Trump the “primary architect” of the Republican defeat and called on the party to debate what it would stand for after him.
The New York Post, Murdoch’s famous pugilistic tabloid, published a giant blue tsunami on its front page on Wednesday, depicting a helpless-looking Trump about to be swallowed up by a wave, under the headline: “Trump suffers historic rebuke as Democrats go on a rampage in midterms.”
Even on Fox News, the cable television channel on which Trump has long enjoyed the support of some of America’s most influential conservative figures, the mood had become muted.
Sean Hannity, one of Trump’s staunchest defenders, was asked whether the election would have turned out differently if the president had not gone to war with Iran. “One hundred percent. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” he said.
Laura Ingraham, another longtime Trump loyalist, said the conflict had been “really harsh and poorly explained.”
This change comes as Republicans begin to reckon with the extent of their electoral defeat. It raises questions about the future of an alliance that has helped maintain Trump’s dominance over American conservatism over the past decade.
The Wall Street Journal accused Trump’s “erratic and complacent” second term of squandering a “rare chance to advance the cause of conservative reform.”
Tuesday’s results constitute a “crushing verdict” on the “missed opportunity” for the Republican Party, according to the newspaper’s editorial. “The Republican Party needs a debate about what it stands for after Donald Trump, and let’s hope it starts this week.”
Advancing the conservative cause is extremely important to Murdoch. He described his companies, including the Times and Sun newspapers in the UK, as the “protector of the conservative voice in the English-speaking world”.
Last year, Murdoch agreed to pay more than $3 billion to three of his children to hand control of his media empire to his eldest son, Lachlan, after his death – and ensure he remained right-wing.
A former News Corp executive said the billionaire had long sought to quickly identify political winners, allowing him to shape their agendas. “He has a strange idea of which way the wind is blowing and wants to get there early enough to exert influence and hold that person accountable to him.”
“Rupert doesn’t want to be with a loser,” the exec said. “He doesn’t care about Trump anymore, he cares about the public.”
But moving away from the president poses a business dilemma. Fox needs to retain its core audience while attracting younger viewers, especially with rival network Newsmax waiting to capitalize on any changes.
“How do we move away from Trump without upsetting this base?”
The report comes as Fox struggles with a sharp decline in its television audience. Fox News’ prime-time ratings fell 28 percent in October from a year earlier. This week, Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s chief executive, said viewers were “tired.”
Fox News noted that the network remained the most-watched cable TV channel in October, despite its audience decline. He also highlighted Fox’s growing digital reach, saying its videos generated 3.9 billion views on YouTube this year, nearly a billion more than its nearest cable news rival.
On election night, Trump offered another explanation: Fox’s ratings were “collapsing” because the network was “AGAINST me!”
Yet Fox hardly abandoned his conservative instincts. At 6:01 a.m. Wednesday, anchor Ainsley Earhardt greeted viewers bluntly: “Your wallet and your lifestyle, in the line of fire.” » The network spent much of the day sounding the alarm about the growing influence of democratic socialists.
Yet Fox News remains deeply tied to Trump — a feature that was visible as the votes rolled in.
Karoline Leavitt, who joined the network as a contributor this week after serving as White House press secretary, told viewers on election night that she had just “talked” to Trump. She defended her record, complaining that the mainstream media had failed to cover her many accomplishments.
At another point in the evening, Trump live texted Fox host Greg Gutfeld, demanding that he tell co-host Jessica Tarlov that she was “the WORST” before launching into a lengthy defense of his economic record. Gutfeld read the message aloud. Tarlov’s response: “Just press ‘stop.’ »
Although he attacked Fox online, Trump called the network in for a lengthy on-air interview. He spoke with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for more than 20 minutes and looked calm, almost resigned, as they pressed him to explain the staggering losses.
Trump brushed off questions about the Iran war and his cabinet members and even praised Democrats for their performance.
“It’s just a specific moment, Bret. There was a vibe in the air, I guess,” he said. “I’ve been doing great things for a long time.”
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