In his upcoming memoir, Jared Kushner claims that at the start of Donald Trump‘s political career in 2015, he personally intervened to prevent Trump from attacking Rupert Murdoch in reaction to the media mogul’s criticism, reports The Guardian.

Kushner writes in his book Breaking History, “Trump called me. He’d clearly had enough. ‘This guy’s no good. And I’m going to tweet it.’

“‘Please, you’re in a Republican primary,’ I said, hoping he wasn’t about to post a negative tweet aimed at the most powerful man in conservative media. ‘You don’t need to get on the wrong side of Rupert. Give me a couple of hours to fix it.’”

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Kushner claims to have fixed it. If his claim is correct, he may be considered as having made a significant intervention in something that changed the course of modern US history.

Murdoch’s backing, primarily through Fox News, was vital in Trump’s triumph against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Despite constant rumours of tension between the two men, Murdoch stood by Trump over his four turbulent years in power, culminating in Trump’s unwillingness to concede defeat and the deadly attack on Congress.

Kushner’s book, which will be released next month, was reportedly obtained by The Guardian.

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The book arrives at a time when Murdoch’s newspapers and, to a lesser extent, Fox News are widely perceived to be distancing themselves from Trump, amid congressional hearings into his election meddling and the January 6 attack, speculation about criminal charges, and as he readies to run for President again.

In his book, Trump’s son-in-law, who later became a top White House adviser, details a connection with Murdoch that grew out of time spent on Murdoch’s boat and at Bono’s house in France, where he watched the U2 frontman perform with Bob Geldof and Billy Joel. Kushner also discusses how Wendi Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s third wife, assisted him in reconciling with Ivanka Trump following a split.

Kushner alleges to have persuaded Murdoch to back Trump in 2015.

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Before Trump entered politics, he and Murdoch were not acquainted. However, after Trump started his explosive campaign for the Republican presidential nomination with a xenophobic rant on Mexicans in July 2015, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch tweeted, “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing the whole country?”

The New York Times reported Murdoch criticizing Trump a week later. Trump was enraged and vowed to tweet about it. Kushner was not his father-in-official law’s adviser at the time, but he reportedly writes the following in his memoir:

” “I called Rupert and told him I had to see him. 

‘Rupert, I think he could win,’ I said, as we sat in his office. ‘You guys agree on a lot of the issues. You want smaller government. You want lower taxes. You want stronger borders.’

“Rupert listened quizzically, like he couldn’t imagine that Trump was actually serious about running. The next day, he called me and said, ‘I’ve looked at this and maybe I was misjudging it. He actually does have a real following. It does seem like he’s very popular, like he can really be a kingmaker in the Republican primary with the way he is playing it. What does Donald want?’

“‘He wants to be president,’ I responded.

“‘No, what does he really want?’ he asked again.

“‘Look, he doesn’t need a nicer plane,’ I said. ‘He’s got a beautiful plane. He doesn’t need a nicer house. He doesn’t need anything. He’s tired of watching politicians screw up the country, and he thinks he could do a better job.’

“‘Interesting,’ Rupert said.

“We had a truce, for the time being.” “

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Kushner also discusses Trump’s disagreements with Fox News throughout the 2016 campaign, notably one with anchor Megyn Kelly. Kushner claims he struck a deal with Roger Ailes, then-CEO of Fox News, for a $5 million gift to a veterans’ organisation of Trump’s choice in exchange for Trump not skipping a debate.

According to Kushner, Murdoch rejected the offer, claiming that if he accepted it, he would have to “pay everyone to show up to debates.”

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Kushner also discusses how Murdoch influenced his understanding of why the US needs Trump. Kushner was reminded of “a book that Rupert Murdoch had given me months earlier: Charles Murray’s Coming Apart, which makes a case that over the last 50 years America has divided into upper and lower classes that live apart from each other, geographically and culturally,” at a rally in Springfield, Illinois in November 2015.

According to Kushner, Trump appealed to the “forgotten and disenfranchised.” The demonstration in Illinois for his son-in-law was a “wake-up call” for him.

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Kushner’s account of another call with Murdoch on election night 2020 has received a lot of attention. He claims Murdoch told him that Fox News’ prediction of Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden in Arizona, which enraged the president and his aides, was “ironclad – not even close.”

Arizona was important to Trump’s attempt to reverse the election by fabricating voting fraud. Fox News is now the target of a $1.6 billion defamation claim from a voting system manufacturer over conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and his associates and reiterated on the network.

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Fox News has claimed it is “confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”