Rupert Murdoch said ‘I can’t get the a**hole off the phone’ about Trump, book claims

Media mogul reportedly left ‘holding out the phone as the president’s voice rambled into the air’

The two have ties stretching back to the 1980s, when Mr Trump was elevated from being a local real estate developer to a multimillionaire gossip column staple – largely due to Mr Murdoch’s New York Post (Reuters)

Rupert Murdoch had a testy phone conversation with Donald Trump during which the media magnate was left “holding out the phone as the president’s voice rambled into the air”, according to a new book.

“I can’t get the a**hole off the phone,” the Fox News founder said about a call with the president, according to Michael Wolff in his soon-to-be-published book, Siege.

Mr Wolff also claimed Mr Murdoch and his son, James had “screaming fights” over Sean Hannity, the conservative TV host, whose “cheerleading had begun to wear thin, and Trump started to turn on him”.

The new extract, published in Vanity Fair, follows claims in Mr Wolff’s 2018 bestseller, Fire and Fury, in which Mr Murdoch was said to have described the president as a “f***ing idiot” following a conversation about immigration.

Siege claims to offer further insight into the close working relationship between Mr Murdoch and his long-time friend and confidant, Mr Trump.

The two have ties stretching back to the 1980s, when Mr Trump was elevated from local real estate developer to a multimillionaire gossip column staple, largely due to Mr Murdoch’s New York Post.

The Fox News channel has been equally loyal to Mr Trump, both during his 2016 campaign and his subsequent years as president, regularly hosting pundits who called other news coverage of the president “fake news”.

Reports from the early days of the Trump presidency suggested the president and the News Corp executive chairman had weekly chats about strategy.

The Independent contacted a spokesman for Mr Murdoch for comment but had not received a response at time of publication.