‘The Brand Is Now Poison!’ Rupert Murdoch Lamented Trump Businesses Were ‘Ruined’ After Jan. 6
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch had a brutal prediction for former President Donald Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, writing in an email later that month that he expected Trump’s family businesses would be ruined and calling his brand “poison.”
Murdoch’s message was part of a email conversation with Paul Ryan, the former congressman who serves on the Fox Corp. board on Jan. 12, 2021, and it was made public as part of a new trove of documents released in Dominion Voting Systems’ litigation against Fox News.
Previous court filings in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit have exposed multiple comments made by Fox News executives and on-air personalities in emails and private text messages amongst each other, acknowledging that Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election, that his claims the election was stolen from him via fraud were unfounded, and lamenting the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Jan. 12, 2021 emails between Murdoch and Ryan strike a similar tone, and were attached as Exhibit 666 (yes, really) in the latest brief filed by Dominion. Murdoch’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, is copied on the emails.
The conversation between the two starts with a message from Ryan linking a newsletter post from The Dispatch titled “The Alternate Reality Machine: A deadly riot’s enablers.” The former Wisconsin congressman wrote that the post “captures the dynamic we are contending with quite well” and “is written by actual conservatives (both Fox contributors Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes) and reflect the current inflection point well.”
Goldberg and Hayes would later sever ties with Fox News over a Tucker Carlson special about Jan. 6 called “Patriot Purge,” sending an email to their subscribers calling the program “dangerous” and “revisionist history.” (Carlson is again in the headlines in the past 24 hours facing similar criticism of revisionist history.)
Murdoch replied by thanking Ryan for sending along the Dispatch article and calling it a “[w]ake up call” for Sean Hannity, “who has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers!” – reflecting other internal Fox News communications fretting about the network’s declining ratings in the wake of the 2020 election. The Australian media mogul also expressed that he was “really surprised” by Brit Hume, “about the steadiest of all our people.”
He commented that he did not think “many” Fox News viewers had fled to their conservative competition, Newsmax and OANN, but “many more just turned off depressed.” He predicted that Fox “will emerge as the loyal conservative opposition and win back our natural viewers” during President Joe Biden’s administration.
“The events of last Wednesday [referring to January 6] and Trump’s behavior overwhelm everything,” wrote Murdoch. “I don’t believe a majority of the 74 million voters [who voted for Trump] believe the conspiracy nonsense.” He described the changes to election laws as “allegedly accommodating the pandemic” as something that caused “damage” to Trump, “[b]ut all open and legal!”
Ryan replied that “the sooner we can put down the echoes of falsehoods from our side, the faster we can get onto principled loyal opposition” of the Biden agenda, and added “I truly hope our contributors, along with Tucker, Laura, and Sean get that and execute” – referring to Fox News’ evening opinion hosts, Carlson, Hannity, and Laura Ingraham.
Murdoch’s next reply included several interesting nuggets, including that he had “[j]ust talked at length with Suzanne Scott,” the Fox News CEO. “Everything changed” on Jan. 6, he continued, and Scott “thinks everyone is now disgusted and previous supporters broken hearted.”
Murdoch wrote he hoped to get some “good voices on air,” and named Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo specifically, both members of Trump’s cabinet.
He then lamented what he saw as a catastrophic downfall for the Trump family businesses, naming Trump’s golf clubs and hotels, as well as daughter Ivanka Trump’s clothing and jewelry lines.
“Trump’s troubles multiplying,” wrote Murdoch. “His businesses now ruined! Who is going to throw a party at one of his golf clubs or hotels? Let alone a tournament. So he has more than just legal problems, bad though they are.”
“The brand is now poison!” he added. “Who wants Ivanka’s fashion lines, jewelry, etc?!”
Murdoch then hypothesized a way out for Trump: “Could he still resign and get Pence to pardon, then just disappear?” and “Would Mike Pence agree?”
Trump of course neither resigned nor disappeared, and is running for president again in the 2024 election.
Fox Corp. did not reply to Mediaite’s request for comment.
