A Trump Media Network? Report Says It Could Happen

In addition to his critique of left-leaning media organizations, President Donald Trump has been taking jabs at Fox Corp FOX FOXA and Fox News in recent years. Those attacks have ramped up since Election Day, and Axios reported Thursday that Trump could have an ulterior motive for going after Fox.

What Happened? Axios reported a “source with detailed knowledge of Trump's intentions” that said Trump intends to launch a conservative digital media organization that could compete directly with Fox News.

“He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it,” the source said.

Fox's stock was down 7% at publication time.

Why It’s Important: Trump has blasted the mainstream media for their alleged “fake news” content and bias against him ever since his 2016 campaign for president. However, Trump has recently narrowed his focus more specifically on Fox.

.@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 also retweeted several anti-Fox tweets throughout the morning.

Trump was reportedly extremely irritated with what he considered to be a premature call by Fox News that Joe Biden won the state of Arizona on Election Night.

So if Trump loses the election he is launching a competing conservative news network that will be huge, great and more bigly than @FoxNews. Got it. https://t.co/c0n2E27cpx

— Wayne Duggan (@DugganSense) June 19, 2020

During election week, CNN’s 5.9 million average viewership narrowly edged out Fox’s 5.7 million viewers to make CNN’s election coverage the most watched of all news networks, according to the Associated Press. CNN is a subsidiary of parent company AT&T Inc. T.

Axios reported that Trump is planning to follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney DIS in launching an entirely digital streaming service to compete with Fox’s Fox Nation streaming service.

Benzinga's Take: Investors shouldn’t expect Trump to make any public announcements about his media plans until after Biden’s official inauguration. In the meantime, it’s unlikely Trump will concede the election given he can use the audience he is getting from his voter fraud claims to continue to damage Fox’s reputation ahead of the potential launch of his network.