Rupert Murdoch Tells Donald Trump To 'Calm Down' Following Wall Street Journal And NBC News Poll Spat

Rupert Murdoch Loses His Temper With Angry Donald Trump
|

Rupert Murdoch has told Donald Trump to "calm down" after the Presidential hopeful complained that polls printed in the 84-year-old's publication had placed him lagging behind fellow Republican candidate Ted Cruz.

The spat comes after Trump called a poll published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) "phony" when it did not place him ahead of his Republican competitors.

The WSJ and NBC News published a joint poll, which differed significantly from other national surveys, which gave Trump a wide lead.

Open Image Modal

Rupert Murdoch has told Donald Trump to 'calm down'

Murdoch is worth an estimated $12.4 billion and Trump is worth $4.5 billion, according to Forbes.

The poll put Texas senator Cruz with 28% of Republican support nationally, compared with 26% for Trump.

Trump adviser Dan Scavino tweeted a graphic reporting results from other polls, with only the WSJ and NBC poll not putting Trump in the lead.

A few hours later, Trump lambasted the poll's results on Twitter, suggesting that the press were against him because they "only want" to report on the WSJ and NBC poll.

Murdoch, the CEO of News Corp, owns the WSJ and Fox News, which Trump has clashed with in recent months, especially with anchor Megyn Kelly.

On Thursday, Murdoch waded into the debate, tweeting: "Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down. If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!"

Trump is currently in an ongoing feud with a number of people and no-one is exempt from his wrath - not even Pope Francis.

The property tycoon branded the pontiff "disgraceful" for claiming Trump was "not a Christian" over his pledge to build a wall across the US-Mexico border.

Returning home to Vatican City from a trip to Central America, the Pope said: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."

Trump responded by quipping at a rally in South Carolina: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”

Yet Trump seems to have a short memory, as it surfaced that he had criticised Republican contender Cruz for not being a proper Christian.