Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson claims the network's boss, Lachlan Murdoch, encouraged him to run for US president to thwart Donald Trump's return to the White House.
"The Murdochs really hate Trump," Carlson said. "There's no-one who hates Trump more than the Murdochs."
Carlson was one of Fox News' biggest and highest paid stars before he was dumped by the conservative network in April 2023.
The following month, he says, Mr Murdoch offered to throw the family's considerable weight behind a potential run in the 2024 presidential election.
Carlson made the claim while speaking to his former Fox colleague Clayton Morris on his podcast his week.
Carlson: "Lachlan Murdoch said: 'You should run for president. We'll back you, the whole thing.'"
Morris: "The whole Fox News apparatus?"
Carlson: "And not just Fox, but, you know, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, the Times of London…"
Morris: "All of their papers?"
Carlson: "Yeah absolutely, 'We'll back you'. I was already gone — they'd already cancelled my show. I was still under contract, but they had cancelled my show."
Carlson said he knocked back the Australian media executive's idea in part because he liked Mr Trump. "I get frustrated, I'm frustrated now. But I like Trump," he said.
Carlson was sacked after Fox News agreed to pay a $US787 million ($1,2 billion) settlement to Dominion Voting Systems after the company had sued the network over its coverage of conspiracy theories about voting machines used in the 2020 election, which Mr Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Murdochs' complicated relationship with Trump
Mr Murdoch is the executive chair and CEO of Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, and chair of News Corp.
His family's ownership of Fox News and other major outlets has afforded them considerable political influence for decades in the US, as well as Australia and the UK.
Family patriarch Rupert Murdoch, the father of Lachlan Murdoch, has had a long and storied relationship with the current president.
It appears to be once again cordial, with Rupert Murdoch even enjoying a personal visit to the Oval Office earlier this year. Mr Trump praised the nonagenarian as an "amazing guy" and in a "class by himself".
But the two billionaires have come into conflict repeatedly, particularly with respect to coverage of Mr Trump's political campaigning.
Mr Trump was furious with Fox News for calling Arizona for Mr Biden relatively early on election night in 2020. The call undermined Mr Trump's incorrect claim the election was stolen from him. In the aftermath, Mr Trump started to promote Fox alternatives including Newsmax and OANN.
He also argued, in the lead-up to the 2024 Republican primary, that many Murdoch outlets provided unfairly large amounts of coverage to Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who was seen as Mr Trump's major rival for the nomination. Mr Trump took to social media to accuse the Murdochs of backing Mr DeSantis's campaign.
Carlson also said Fox was annoyed when he would have Mr Trump on his Fox program.
But since his return to the presidency, Mr Trump has been once again embraced by Fox — one of the few major mainstream US outlets not regularly labelled as "fake news" by the president.
Carlson untethered
Since leaving Fox, Carlson has branched off into his own media ventures, including a podcast and YouTube channel, where he's become increasingly critical of his former employer.
In the past few weeks, he's also become one of the faces of a rift in the MAGA movement over US military involvement in Iran.
Before Mr Trump ordered the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Carlson was pointedly critical of any US attack, arguing it was against the US national interest and was primarily being pushed by pro-Israel voices. He accused Fox of broadcasting "pro-Israel propaganda".
Carlson also took to social media to directly call out Rupert Murdoch for his role, writing: "Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who's calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran."
He named Fox presenters Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, businessman Ike Perlmutter and conservative political donor Miriam Adelson, as well as Rupert Murdoch, and wrote: "At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now."
He also accused the president of being "complicit in the act of war" for allowing Israel to strike Iran.
When asked about Carlson's criticisms last week, Mr Trump mocked his relevance. "I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying," Mr Trump said. "Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen."
Polling suggests that a majority of Republicans back the president's decision to strike Iran, despite the criticisms from Carlson and others.
Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corporation and the White House have been contacted for comment.
