Former senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner has claimed in his looming memoir that he personally prevented former US President Donald Trump from attacking media mogul Rupert Murdoch over his criticism of Trump's 2016 White House bid.
Kushner reportedly recalled that when his father-in-law started his presidential campaign he instantly saw red when, in 2015, Murdoch tweeted: "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?"
According to an Axios report on the excerpt, then, a few days later, the New York Times ran a front-page article that discussed Murdoch's reservations about Trump. It was titled "Titans Clash as Trump's Run Fuels His Feud With Murdoch."
"Trump called me," Kushner wrote. "He'd clearly had enough. 'This guy’s no good. And I’m going to tweet it.'"
Kushner claimed that he managed to persuade Trump not to tweet anything about "the most powerful man" in conservative media, promising him that he would fix the relationship in a couple of hours.
Then, when he met Murdoch in his office, Kushner recalled how he assured him of the high chance of Trump's 2016 election victory, and pointed out to the media mogul that they - Trump and Murdoch - both wanted essentially the same things.
"You guys agree on a lot of the issues. You want smaller government. You want lower taxes. You want stronger borders," Kushner allegedly said in that conversation, adding in the book that "Rupert listened quizzically, like he couldn’t imagine that Trump was actually serious about running."
The next day, Murdoch reportedly contacted Kushner and added that perhaps he misjudged the outcome of Trump's endeavor. Nevertheless, he asked: "What does Donald want?"
"He wants to be president," I responded. "No, what does he really want?" he asked again. "Look, he doesn’t need a nicer plane," I said. "He’s got a beautiful plane. He doesn’t need a nicer house. He doesn’t need anything. He’s tired of watching politicians screw up the country, and he thinks he could do a better job."
And that was the truce between the two powerful men, Kushner said, "for the time being."
Following Kushner's meeting with Murdoch, Fox News anchor Sean Hannity reportedly started serving as Trump's informal adviser. When former Fox News executive Bill Shine joined the White House staff, it reached its pinnacle.
On election night 2020, Fox's Decision Desk was the first to predict Arizona for Biden, infuriating Trump and his staff. This caused a permanent change in the relationship between Fox and Trump.