Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy met with Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox News’ parent company Fox Corp., in late April in New York, according to two people familiar with the meeting who were not authorized to discuss private events.
One person described it as a “getting-to-know you session” and said Murdoch often meets with rising political figures.
Murdoch’s meeting with Ramaswamy came at a tumultuous time at Fox Corp., which parted ways in late April with star primetime host Tucker Carlson and weeks earlier settled a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million.
Ramaswamy has been a frequent guest on Fox News and was long a regular guest on Carlson’s program. After Carlson left Fox News, Ramaswamy told Politico that Carlson should consider getting into the 2024 race, saying, “I think he’d be a good addition.”
While Murdoch has not weighed in on the Republican contest, several editorials in news outlets within Fox Corp. have criticized the former president, including an editorial in The Wall Street Journal with the headline, “Trump is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser.”
Ramaswamy’s meeting with Murdoch is the latest in a series of behind-the-scenes conversations the multimillionaire entrepreneur has had with major conservative leaders and business executives as he seeks the Republican nomination and casts himself in visits to early-voting states as a dynamic, 37-year-old contender who is in step with supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The New York Times noted this month that Ramaswamy recently dined with three of the GOP’s billionaire financiers: Steve Wynn, Ike Perlmutter, and Thomas Peterffy.
Even as Ramaswamy gains some traction, Trump has so far not made him a political target.
One longtime Trump associate told CBS News on Friday that Trump “sees Vivek being out there as a way of making everything a little more uncomfortable for [Ron] DeSantis.” Ramaswamy has made sharp comments about DeSantis, saying the Florida governor, who is expected to jump into the 2024 race in the coming days, “doesn’t have” what it takes to be an effective leader and is “deeply insecure.”
“I am pleased to see that Vivek Ramaswamy is doing so well in the most recent Republican Primary Poll, CBS YouGov,” Trump wrote in a social-media post earlier this month. “He is tied with Mike Pence and seems to be on his way to catching Ron DeSanctimonious. The thing I like about Vivek is that he only has good things to say about ‘President Trump,’ and all that the Trump Administration has so successfully done—This is the reason he is doing so well. In any event, good luck to all of them, they will need it!”
A spokesperson for Fox Corp. declined to comment.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy, declined to comment.
