Rupert Murdoch Gets Last Laugh After Trump Dressed Him Down in Oval Office
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board needled Donald Trump for relenting on his tariffs just hours after the president called out the paper’s billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch, while he was in the Oval Office.
The editorial, which ran under the headline “Trump Blinks on North American Tariffs‚” pushed against the notion that the president’s 25 percent import taxes on allies Canada and Mexico “are some genius power play, as the Trump media chorus is boasting.”
Earlier on Monday, when the 93-year-old conservative media mogul had visited Trump in the White House, the president told reporters he would “have to talk with him” about a separate critical editorial the Journal wrote about his tariffs. All Murdoch could do was look on.
Trump backed off on the tariffs less than a week after announcing them. He agreed to delay the taxes by at least a month because Canada and Mexico told Trump they would clamp down on their borders.
On Monday, soon after the two men’s meeting, the Journal suggested Trump’s declaration of victory, which followed quickly, was overblown.
“If the North American leaders need to cheer about a minor deal so they all claim victory, that’s better for everyone,” the editorial read. “The need is especially important for Mr. Trump given how much he has boasted that his tariffs are a fool-proof diplomatic weapon against friend or foe. Mr. Trump can’t afford to look like the guy who lost.”
“None of this means the tariffs are some genius power play, as the Trump media chorus is boasting,” it added. “The 25% border tax could return in a month if Mr. Trump is in the wrong mood, or if he doesn’t like something the foreign leaders have said or done.”
Ahead of Murdoch’s visit to the White House on Monday, the Journal had published an editorial skewering Trump’s tariffs as “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”
When a reporter pressed Trump on the editorial, with Murdoch seated just feet away, the president couldn’t help but take a shot at the paper.
“I’m going to have to talk to him,” he said. “I’ve been right over The Wall Street Journal many times. I don’t agree with him on some things.”
Reporter: Mr. Murdoch’s own newspaper called it the dumbest trade war
Trump: I’ll have to talk to him… You’re going to see. Every one of those single countries is dying to make a deal. You know why? Because they’re ripping us off. pic.twitter.com/PSFClYPbRz— Acyn (@Acyn) February 3, 2025
That didn’t stop Trump from pouring praise on Murdoch, whose media ownership portfolio also includes Fox News, the New York Post, and The Times of London.
“Rupert is in a class by himself,” Trump told reporters. “He’s an amazing guy.”
The Journal’s editorial board, although it tends to lean conservative, has in the past month criticized Trump for the blanket-pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters and for eliminating the security details of his first-term advisers.
The editor of the paper’s editorial page, Paul Gigot, told the Associated Press last week that “we are covering Trump like we do every president, and that means supporting his decisions when they warrant it, and criticizing them when that is deserved. It’s no more complicated than that.”
