This is getting curiouser and curiouser. Fox News has a policy that they won’t employ a contributor who runs for political office. In Lara Trump’s case, she’s the daughter-in-law of a candidate for political office. And that candidate declared his candidacy weeks ago — yet Fox News happened to fire Lara Trump only yesterday? Variety:
The Fox Corp.-backed network confirmed Saturday that Trump, wife to President Donald Trump’s younger son, Eric, was no longer an official contributor to the network, which hired her in the role in the spring of 2021.
“We appreciate Lara’s valuable contributions across Fox News Media programming,” the company said in a statement. Fox News’ decision was previously reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Fox News has long maintained a policy that prohibits people from being contributors when they announce a campaign for public office. In this case, since Donald Trump has announced his intention to run once again for president, the network’s rules bar Lara Trump from being paid for her commentary. She could conceivably appear on the air in an unpaid capacity, as she did when Donald Trump ran during the 2020 campaign.
I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were Lara. Rupert Murdoch had hopes that Trump might win in 2020. He has zero desire to see Trump run in 2024 and he has made that abundantly clear. Both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal have savaged Trump in their editorial pages. Even the announcement of his candidacy was mocked and put on page 20 of the New York post.
What I get from this is Murdoch saying that the Trumps are finished, plural. If the GOP can’t cut bait, Murdoch can and he has. Trump announced his candidacy, officially, on November 15. He alluded to it before election day, November 8. It was a certainty. Why Murdoch waited until yesterday to cut Lara Trump loose is an interesting question.
And this woman was contemplating a run for the U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina at one point. God help us.
This is an intriguing development. Maybe the GOP won’t cut Trump out of politics, maybe Rupert Murdoch will.
It’s not like her commentary was worth whatever they were paying. She came across as a younger Kellyanne, alternative facts and all. The more power brokers that dump TFG, the better.
Um. Am I missing something? Did LARA make any announcement of running for political office?
IANAL but I’m seeing the great potential for a VERY HUGE lawsuit for “unlawful termination of employment” here. If she were to decide to take on a job for the Trump campaign (which I’m not seeing she’s done as yet), then I could see the termination (we could be talking “conflict of interest” but that’s never been a problem for Fox in the past) but this seems more like Fox is jumping the gun.
Maybe there’s more to Fox’s employment rules here but I feel like I’m missing a major part of the story.
I’m sure there is a lot of unreported things they are not telling .
The GOP has always maneuvered in such a way that somebody else cleans up their messes. Murdoch has finally had enough and is saying so with a large “period”.
Murdoch figured out a while back that there was no longer $$$$$ in it for him with TFG out of the fading picture.