Retired media mogul Rupert Murdoch has made clear who he wants former President Donald Trump's running mate to be behind closed doors, according to a new NOTUS report, but Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., seems to have someone else in mind.
The Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee is just days away. At the convention, Trump is expected to be selected as the GOP presidential nominee, but his pick for vice president is still up in the air. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio are two top contenders for the position.
Donald Trump Jr. has been a big supporter of the Ohio senator. On Wednesday, he posted a clip of Vance at the National Conservatism conference on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: "Stop what you're doing and watch this right now if you want to know what America First is all about." America First is a term adopted by the Trump camp to describe their national interest-centric political agenda.
Axios reported on Thursday that Donald Trump Jr. is set to speak before his father is expected to announce his running mate at the RNC on Wednesday. The news outlet took this as "the latest sign" that Vance is currently Trump's favorite potential running mate.
Meanwhile, Murdoch, the founder of News Corp, which owns Fox News and other right-leaning publications like the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, has reportedly been lobbying for Trump to pick Burgum as his running mate.
An unnamed Fox News communications consultant told NOTUS, a political news site, in an article published on Friday that Murdoch has sent New York Post employees to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to advocate for Burgum and disparage Vance.
Meanwhile, an anonymous source close to Trump, told the outlet that Murdoch regularly calls Trump to try to convince him to pick Burgum as his running mate. The source told a similar story to that of the Fox News employee, telling NOTUS that Murdoch sent News Corp executives to meet with Trump and urge him to pick Burgum and not Vance.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign and News Corp via email for comment. It also reached out to Vance's office via text message and Burgum's office via online form for comment.
Meanwhile, the New York Post has publicly raved about Burgum and criticized Vance.
In an op-ed published Thursday, titled, "Doug Burgum is Trump's best VP choice to cement a historic legacy," the publication's editorial board praised the governor's business experience, writing that Trump would have "someone who can get stuck into the backbreaking work that is needed to turn this country around" if he chose the governor as his running mate.
The op-ed continued: "Against Vance's handful of years working as a venture capitalist, and [Florida Senator Marco] Rubio's short stint as a lawyer before a long (and successful) career in elected office, Burgum had a full, smashing career in business before taking on his local GOP political establishment to win North Dakota's governorship."
Another Post op-ed from the newspaper's editorial board on Monday advised Trump to "drop JD Vance," writing that the Ohio senator "looks risky" and mentioned when Vance called himself a "Never Trump guy" in 2016. While it is true that Vance used to be critical of Trump, he is now one of his biggest supporters.
Donald Trump Jr. vouched for Vance in a CNN article from June saying, "We're 100% confident that JD is America First to the core. Objectively speaking, no one in the Senate has been a stronger supporter of my father than he has been."
Murdoch's opinion may not hold as much weight with Trump as it once did. In 2017, The New York Times reported that Murdoch and Trump would talk regularly. Meanwhile, for years Fox News promoted Trump's political agenda. However, their relationship soured during the 2020 election.
Trump was reportedly outraged during the 2020 election when Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden with only 73 percent of the votes counted and three hours before the Associated Press called it. In the wake of Trump's 2020 election loss to Biden, he spread claims that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence to back up such claims. Fox News helped spread these claims, costing the network a staggering $787.5 million in a defamation lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
A longtime Trump adviser who talked to NOTUS said that Murdoch "wants to use the VP pick to control Trump and his second administration." If Trump ends up going with Vance, "it will be a signal that Rupert Murdoch no longer controls the Republican Party and that this is now the party of Trump," the unnamed adviser said.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
