Rupert Murdoch ‘secretly hoping’ for Biden US election victory to avoid ‘chaos’ of second Trump presidency
Rupert Murdoch is “secretly hoping” for Joe Biden to win a second term in the White House because the incumbent president is “better for business”, sources close to the media mogul have told i.
The revelation comes following an excoriating Fox News interview with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump on Wednesday night.
Two sources close to Mr Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who runs Fox News’ day-to-day operations as chief executive, told i that both men are concerned the effect a second Trump administration would have on the markets, but that their previous preference for the Republican nomination for president, Ron DeSantis, had now fallen out of favour within Fox and Mr Murdoch’s other media giant News Corp.
A senior executive within Fox News said: “Both Rupert and Lachlan were full-square behind De Santis a few months ago, but that support begun to wane as it became clear he wasn’t the campaigner they had hoped he would be.
“As for Trump, both men have been concerned about him for quite some time, so with no Republican candidate they can really get behind they are secretly hoping Joe Biden will win a second term as he’s better for business than the chaos of another Trump term could bring.”
It is also understood that Mr DeSantis’ choice to launch his presidential run via a glitch-riddled livestream on Twitter rather than stick with Republican tradition to announce his candidacy on Fox News was “the final nail in the coffin” that “eliminated any chance” that the Murdochs would back the Florida Governor’s campaign for the White House.
Despite Mr Trump’s various legal issues – which include an action in New York over hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and 37 charges that he illegally retained highly sensitive documents after leaving office in 2020 – the former president remains the most popular Republican candidate among an ever-growing list of rivals for the run at the White House.
Mr Trump denies all the charges in both cases.
Recent polling in the US shows Mr Trump is way ahead of his main rival, DeSantis. According to an Emerson College national poll released on Thursday, Mr Trump still leads the field with 59 per cent support among Republican primary voters, while DeSantis trails at 21 per cent.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is in a lowly third spot with six per cent support from Republicans.
Another source close to the Murdochs added that while Fox News will not openly endorse President Biden’s campaign to remain in the Oval Office, they would have their “fingers crossed” that he defeats Mr Trump.
“I guess you could say they [the Murdochs] are secretly backing Biden right now,” said a source at Fox. “They are, at least privately, fearful of what another Trump presidency could bring in terms of instability in the markets.
“Clearly, with Fox’s audience they will not air these opinions to the Trump supporters that keep the viewing figures high, but I think Bret Baier’s interview with the former president shows Fox is no longer his biggest fan.”
During the interview Mr Trump continued to defend his decision to keep the classified documents at his Florida resort, and continued to insist he was innocent of all charges.
Pressed by Mr Baier on why he did not return the boxes of classified documents to the National Archives and Records Administration when asked to do so by the FBI, Mr Trump said the boxes were packed with personal items and that he was “very busy.”
“I had boxes,” said Mr Trump. “I wanted to go through the boxes and get all of my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet.”
“And I was very busy,” Trump added, “as you’ve sort of seen.”
“Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out,” he said. “These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things: golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes.”
Fox News and News Corps were approached for comment.
