President Donald Trump plans to attack Fox News after his election loss in hopes of launching a digital streaming platform to compete with the network, Axios reports.
Trump is planning a series of “vote-counting rallies” where he is “going to spend a lot of time slamming Fox,” a source told Axios.
Trump and his advisers have fumed at the network after it projected President-elect Joe Biden to win the state, even though that call now appears to have been correct.
"He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it," a source told the outlet.
While there have long been rumors that Trump wanted to launch a competing cable channel, “getting carried on cable systems would be expensive and time-consuming,” Axios noted. Instead, Trump is considering a digital streaming platform that would be “cheaper” to start.
Trump takes aim at Fox:
Trump has repeatedly complained that the network’s coverage is no longer as fawning as it once was.
"Fox has changed a lot," Trump said during an interview with the network before the election. "Somebody said: What's the biggest difference between this and four years ago? And I say Fox."
"I'm not complaining — I'm just telling people," he added. "It's one of the biggest differences this season compared to last."
Fox News executives do not appear worried about a potential competitor.
"We love competition. We have always thrived with competition,” Fox Corp. Executive Lachlan Murdoch told investors. “Fox News has been the number one network, including broadcast networks, ... from Labor Day through to Election Day."
Trump supporters leave Fox for Newsmax:
Trump die-hards are already abandoning Fox News for covering Biden as the winner. Instead, many fans have switched over to Newsmax, which has not called the race for Biden and has hosted a number of guests echoing Trump’s baseless fraud claims.
“On Newsmax, voter fraud innuendo is everywhere. Conspiracy theory chatter is constant. And perhaps most importantly, Joe Biden is not the president-elect. The channel is tapping into a real vein of rage on the right,” wrote CNN’s Brian Stelter. “There is a demand for content that swears Biden is not president-elect; that Trump is not a loser; that Trump might even win a second term.”
