Unsealed documents reveal that President Donald Trump was set to be banned from a channel his base trusts most.
Documents obtained from a defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, a voting machine company, against media giant Fox Corporation, reveal text messages from CEO Lachlan Murdoch, 54, to Fox host Sean Hannity, warning that the president would not be invited back for interviews if he attacked the network.
“Sean, sorry, but the president is not coming back on air if he uses it to attack us,” Murdoch wrote about Trump, 79. “It is the same rule we have with the other side. This is a golden rule,” he added before signing off with an informal “Thx L.” The released documents redacted Hannity’s response.
Murdoch’s pointed message came on Oct. one, 2020, following Hannity’s interview with the president, during which Trump complained that Fox was a “much different place” than it used to be and took aim at two of its journalists. The text chain also included Trump’s frenemy Rupert Murdoch, 94, and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, 60.
Following his father’s stepping down as chair of News Corp—Fox’s parent company—MAGA media criticized Lachlan as “woke,” despite the successor’s conservative-leaning speeches suggesting otherwise.
Lachlan’s texts were released as part of court exhibits in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit, in which the global election technology company aims to prove that Fox Corp deliberately spread misinformation about its voting systems as part of the false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
Fox Corp says any allegations against Smartmatic came from the president, not the company, and that it was simply reporting a “newsworthy story.” Its bid to dismiss the lawsuit in January failed.
Further court exhibits show that viewership among Fox’s dedicated Republican base had been falling after the network became the first to call Arizona for presidential candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
Emails between Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan show that on Nov. 23, 2020, the father wrote, “Getting killed in audience numbers,” emphasizing the need for a discussion. Lachlan agreed, adding that the numbers were keeping him “awake at night.”
The documents from Rupert Murdoch’s deposition showed the Smartmatic lawyer asking whether he took any steps “to make sure that hosts with shows on Fox News Media did not endorse claims about the 2020 election being stolen,” to which he replied. “No. No.”
“I was thrilled [with] the way Fox News was handling it,” Rupert Murdoch said of Fox’s post-election coverage.
The 94-year-old also acknowledged that the network was trying to move away from Trump after his loss in the election, but “didn’t want to upset” its MAGA-loyal audience.
In 2023, The Guardian reported that Fox introduced a ‘soft ban’ on Trump’s appearances on the network, and his son, Donald Trump Jr., claimed he was banned from Fox News. The network responded that he has always been welcome on all Fox platforms.
Trump’s ties with the conservative-leaning network have long been transactional: he has frequently criticized it—such as during the 2024 presidential election over a Kamala Harris interview—yet he continues to appear on its programs.
During his second presidency, the president’s relationship with former CEO Rupert Murdoch has also become increasingly strained after Trump sued the Wall Street Journal—another News Corp outlet—over its coverage of his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper. That will be an interesting experience!!!” Trump wrote about his on-again, off-again friend.
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