01/4/2018
Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of Fox News, reportedly called President Donald Trump “a f—ing idiot” after a conversation the two men had to discuss Trump’s December 2016 meeting with Silicon Valley elite, according to the soon-to-be-released book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff.
Excerpts from the book were published Wednesday by The Guardian and New York magazine. In the New York excerpt, Wolff wrote that Trump called Murdoch following a transition meeting at Trump Tower with tech leaders, and Murdoch asked how the meeting went.
“Oh, great, just great,” Trump said. “These guys really need my help. Obama was not very favorable to them, too much regulation. This is really an opportunity for me to help them.”
“Donald,” Murdoch responded. “For eight years these guys had Obama in their pocket. They practically ran the administration. They don’t need your help.”
Murdoch suggested to Trump that taking a more liberal approach to the handling of H-1B visas, a program widely utilized by the tech industry and one it hoped Trump would not curtail, would be difficult to pull off while maintaining authenticity on his hard-line immigration rhetoric.
“We’ll figure it out,” Trump told Murdoch.
“What a fucking idiot,” Murdoch said, shrugging as he hung up the call.
