Rupert Murdoch reportedly 'thinks Trump is going to crash and burn' in November


Fox News stars Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt have been dating for months, after quiet divorces last year, Gabriel Sherman reports at Vanity Fair. "As Donald Trump's poll numbers slide, Hannity's and Earhardt's loyalty is increasingly valuable, especially since, at the corporate level, confidence in Trump is waning. Two sources said Rupert Murdoch has recently told people that he believes Trump is going to lose in November. 'Rupert thinks Trump is going to crash and burn. It's a clear-eyed assessment, just based on just looking at the news,' said a person who has spoken with Murdoch about the election."
Fox News is at least nominally run by Lachlan Murdoch, network founder Rupert Murdoch's son, and Sherman has been reporting for a year that things are icy between Hannity and especially the younger Murdoch. Trump himself has been publicly criticizing Fox News and touting a fringier upstart competitor.
It may not matter what either Murdoch thinks. "At Fox, Hannity and Earhardt are among the last bastion of unwavering Trump loyalists," Sherman notes. "Fox & Friends and Hannity's prime-time show bracket each day of news with ego-stroking segments where Trump is always victorious over his Democratic and media enemies." According to the polls, reality has been watching a different channel.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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