Trump Plans to 'Wreck Fox' by Creating Rival Digital Media Channel: Report
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Getty Images President Donald Trump
Though President Donald Trump is continuing to publicly contest the results of the 2020 presidential election, he's privately making plans for life after office.
That's according to Axios, which published a report on Thursday in which sources said Trump and his allies are making plans for a digital media channel that will directly compete with Fox News.
"He plans to wreck Fox," a source told Axios. "No doubt about it."
Though the details remain murky, the source told Axios that the Trump-run media channel would be online-only (and therefore less expensive to run than a cable channel) and would likely charge a monthly fee to subscribers.
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Political analysts have speculated that Trump would launch some sort of "Trump TV" channel since 2016, before he won the election. Actually pulling it off, however, would be challenging.
Though Trump has a sizable database of email and cellphone contacts from which to pull potential subscribers, generating content and advertising revenue and hiring talent would be another matter entirely.
Another option would be a show of his own on a television network outside of Fox.
Newsmax, a right-wing media network that has staunchly supported Trump's presidency, has extended him an invitation to host his own show once out of office, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Though neither the White House nor the campaign have recently commented on Trump's plans to start a competing news network, the president himself has since not held back in his criticism of the network whose opinion hosts have traditionally praised him.
.@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
Trump's campaign reportedly became furious at Fox News last week, after it became the first major network to call Arizona for Joe Biden, based on the votes coming in. (A week later, Biden still leads in the state and his projected victory for the presidency was announced Saturday.)
The president's public ire for the network has only grown since.
In a series of tweets published Thursday, Trump claimed Fox News daytime ratings had "completely collapsed," as the network "forgot what made [it] successful."
He also retweeted at least 11 posts alleging that the network was "completely unfair," "corrupt" and "dead."
According to Neilsen data shared by the network to PEOPLE, Fox has actually seen its ratings increase in recent months, meaning competing against it would be no easy feat.
Year-to-date, the network has bested both CNN and MSNBC in daytime and nighttime ratings; it’s been the highest-rated network in television among primetime viewers for the past six months.
Trump's campaign did not respond to PEOPLE's requests regarding the accuracy of the Axios report, though his representatives have denied similar stories in the past, even while boasting about his own "exceptionally high ratings."
In a Nov. 3 earnings call, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch addressed rumors of a potential Trump-helmed network, saying his network thrived on competition in today’s diverse media market.
“We love competition. We have always on thrived with competition. And we have strong competition now,” Murdoch said. “I would say the only difference today versus some years ago, as our audience has grown and our reach has grown, we see our competition as no longer only cable news providers, but also as the traditional broadcast networks.”
