Rupert Murdoch has launched a full-scale lobbying effort to get Donald Trump to pick North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for vice president, sources told NOTUS. And if Trump won’t pick Burgum, these sources said, Murdoch apparently has one last request: At least don’t pick Sen. J.D. Vance.
Sources told NOTUS Friday that Murdoch has been pushing for Burgum — and against Vance — for quite some time now, both over the phone and by dispatching surrogates to Trump in person.
A source close to Trump told NOTUS that Murdoch has been regularly calling the former president — often multiple times a day — to urge him to choose Burgum.
One Fox News communications consultant told NOTUS that Murdoch had also sent employees from the New York Post down to Mar-a-Lago to bash Vance and make the case for the North Dakota governor. And the source close to Trump told NOTUS something similar — that Murdoch had sent News Corp executives to meet with the former president to personally make the pitch for Burgum and against Vance.
When Murdoch first embarked on the campaign, it was for “anyone but J.D.,” the source close to Trump said. Murdoch seemed open to both Burgum or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, this person added. But as the veepstakes have intensified over the last couple of weeks, Murdoch has narrowed his focus to Burgum.
Standing in the retired media mogul’s way: Trump hasn’t forgotten that Murdoch went all in on Gov. Ron DeSantis in the primaries, according to multiple sources.
The source close to the former president said the reason Murdoch was pushing Burgum was so there was “a check on Trump.”
“Rupert has always viewed Trump as subservient to him,” the Fox communications consultant told NOTUS. “And it bothers him. He’s not looking forward to another four years where he’ll have to kiss Trump’s ass. They don’t want Trump on Fox, so they get Burgum on there and groom him for the next four years and make him president. That’s his way of ending Trumpism.”
Representatives for Vance, Burgum and the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Murdoch’s private entreaties have also mirrored the public campaign underway in two of his newspapers: The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. In recent weeks, these sources pointed out, the two papers have run at least five editorials speaking negatively of Vance and advocating for Burgum.
Trump advisers have also taken note of the lobbying effort — both publicly and privately — and pointed to Murdoch’s efforts in the primary to cut the legs out from under the former president by boosting DeSantis.
In May 2023, the Post editorial board wrote that “Ron DeSantis gives America the chance to move on from its punch-drunk stupor.”
And on Jan. 21 of this year, the day DeSantis dropped out, the WSJ editorial board wrote that if Trump won the primary, he would find it hard to win the general election. Even if he did, the WSJ editorial board said, there are “many reasons to think he can’t” deliver Republican policy wins.
“Through his media outlets, they’re running the same exact playbook against J.D. and in support of Burgum as they did against DJT and in support of DeSantis during the primary,” a longtime Trump adviser told NOTUS.
This longtime adviser added that Murdoch “wants to use the VP pick to control Trump and his second administration.” But if Trump chooses Vance, this person said, “it will be a signal that Rupert Murdoch no longer controls the Republican Party and that this is now the party of Trump.”
As to why Murdoch would be so anti-Vance and pro-Burgum to the point he’s intently lobbying the former president, one former longtime employee of Murdoch has a guess.
“A lot of supposedly conservative news outlets turn out to have zero interest in anything their readers and viewers care about. Instead, they’re focused on promoting pointless wars. That’s why they’re working so hard to destroy J.D. Vance before Trump can pick him. Let’s hope they don’t succeed,” Tucker Carlson, who worked for Fox News from 2009 until 2023, told NOTUS in a statement.
Representatives for Murdoch, News Corp and the New York Post did not respond to a request for comment.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.