It’s not just tech moguls that have been getting face time with Donald Trump in the White House. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and New York Post — two out of three among the Trump-friendly establishment media outlets — made his way to the Oval Office on Monday.
Murdoch, who formally stepped back as the chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. in 2023 but who still wields outsized influence, watched as Trump signed a series of executive orders and parried with press about the particulars (like, for instance, a new sovereign U.S. wealth fund that could be set up and could be in the running to buy TikTok).
Asked about the presence of the 93-year-old media mogul and what he’d discuss with him, Trump demurred, sort of.
“Just respect, I have great respect for Rupert Murdoch. I disagree with him a lot of times with The Wall Street Journal but it’s alright. We’ve disagreed before. And I’m sure they didn’t have any idea what they were talking about,” Trump told reporters.
Presumably the President was referencing a piece by The Wall Street Journal editorial board, the opinion section that ultimately reports to ownership, titled “The Dumbest Trade War in History,” about Trump’s tariffs battle with Canada and Mexico.
Larry Ellison — who was at the White House on Jan. 21 to help unveil the $500 billion Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative (that may need get reworked post-DeepSeek) — also was present in the Oval Office on Monday for the executive order signing on the sovereign wealth fund, seated next to Murdoch.
Trump, in an aside to reporters, called Ellison and Murdoch, “the most powerful people in the world” and “legends in business.”
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