Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose empire includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, is hitting back at Donald Trump for suggesting that he was using his outlets to conspire against the Republican presidential candidate.
“Trump blames me for [The Wall Street Journal] poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down,” Murdoch said Thursday on Twitter. “If I [sic] running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!”
Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down. If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) February 18, 2016
During a radio interview earlier in the day, Trump said that a WSJ-NBC News poll released this week, which showed him losing his lead nationally for the first time in several months, was “just a Rupert Murdoch hit.” Other polls, including ones also released this week, have consistently shown Trump leading the GOP field by large margins.
The Journal’s editorial board, though, has published several pieces against Trump, and Trump has also tangled with Fox News throughout the campaign. He even skipped a debate hosted by the network ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
Murdoch, who is known for his conservative-leaning political views, has voiced mixed opinions about Trump in the past. Most recently in December, Murdoch said that the GOP would be “mad” to think of “ganging up” on Trump.
Previously, however, Murdoch has criticized the billionaire business man for his harsh tone on immigration. “Trump wrong,” Murdoch said last summer, in the heat of controversy over Trump’s now-famous screed against illegal immigrants.
