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Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch told Donald Trump which of his sons would take over running his media empire at a meeting in 2017, a new book says.
CNN's "Reliable Sources" newsletter on Wednesday published extracts from "Confidence Man," New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman's new book about Donald Trump.
At the White House meeting, Haberman writes, Trump and Murdoch were supposed to discuss candidates for the White House chief of staff role. But Trump's mind was elsewhere, and he instead spent 30 minutes "hectoring Murdoch about the supposed leftward drift of Fox News."
"'It's going to become too liberal when James [Murdoch] takes over,'" Trump reportedly told Murdoch, referring to the media magnate's son, who was widely expected to take over from his father.
"'No,' Murdoch interrupted. 'It's going to be Lachlan [Murdoch].' That was one of the first times the succession plan ... had ever been made public, and Trump only managed to elicit it because he was so uninterested in dealing with his own staffing issues," Haberman writes.
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In May 2018 Lachlan Murdoch was appointed chairman and CEO of Rupert Murdoch's TV empire, which includes Fox News and Fox Business, having previously worked there as a senior executive.
Under his stewardship, Fox News championed Trump's presidency and has promoted far-right conspiracy theories during the pandemic and on immigration.
Despite the backing he's received from the network, Trump has long railed against it at the slightest sign of criticism.
James Murdoch resigned from his board position on News Corp, the umbrella ccompany for several of Murdoch's businesses, in 2020, citing editorial differences, specifically in relation to the coverage of global warming.
News Corp did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
