Trump Blasts Murdoch’s News Corp, DeSantis as He Weighs 2024 Run

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump lashed out at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, claiming that the media mogul’s news outlets are “all in” for his chief Republican rival and threat to his 2024 presidential ambitions.

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The former president was ostensibly responding to sharp and mocking criticism from Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Fox News, in the aftermath of the Republican Party’s poor midterm election showing on Tuesday, in which Trump has received rare -- and public -- intra-party blame for his outsized role in elevating candidates who either lost or struggled.

The New York Post lauded DeSantis’ resounding re-election victory in Florida with a picture of the governor splashed across the front page and a headline playing on his name: “DeFuture.” Four days earlier, Trump tauntingly called him “DeSanctimonious,” a nickname that the former president again invoked in the statement issued Thursday.

Murdoch’s properties are “all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious, an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations,” Trump said in a statement on Thursday, going on to criticize DeSantis for quarantine measures he presided over when the Covid-19 pandemic spread in early 2020, and saying the governor attracts citizens to his state because of its “SUNSHINE.”

The nearly 500-word statement was the latest in a series of attacks against DeSantis over the past week, starting with the jab at his name at a rally on Saturday, and a threat on the eve of the election to release what Trump claimed was damaging information on DeSantis should he decide to run in 2024. The escalation has taken place as Trump inches closer to a 2024 presidential announcement, expected Nov. 15 at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate.

A message left for comment from DeSantis wasn’t immediately returned.

Trump also said his 2018 endorsement ushered DeSantis into the governor’s mansion, suggesting that DeSantis is disloyal for flirting with a presidential campaign.

“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Trump said.

--With assistance from Mark Niquette.

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