Donald Trump and some of his top campaign staffers are blaming the Republican presidential candidate’s downward shift to second place in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.
For the first time, the billionaire-turned-GOP hopeful fell behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the national poll released Wednesday evening. Cruz carried 28 percent support among Republican voters while Trump carried 26 percent and remained within the margin of error against his closest competitor.
Hours after the results were reported, Trump told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, “I think somebody at The Wall Street Journal doesn’t like me.”
In addition to owning Fox News, Murdoch acquired the Journal in 2007 when he purchased Dow Jones for $5 billion — a transaction Trump’s social media director, Dan Scavino, was quick to point out Thursday on Twitter.
While Trump has never failed to include NBC News/Wall Street Journal surveys of Republican voters in his almost-daily recitation of polls, the billionaire denounced the survey released Wednesday.
New CBS National Poll just out – massive lead for Trump. The Wall Street Journal/NBC Poll is a total joke. No wonder WSJ is doing so badly!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2016
He later added, “Fox News is changing their theme from ‘fair and balanced’ to ‘unfair and unbalanced.’ But dying [Wall Street Journal] is worse. Their phony poll is a joke!”
Trump did not directly comment on a new Fox News poll released Thursday morning that showed him leading the field by nearly 15 percentage points in South Carolina.
