The New York Post once put Ron DeSantis on their cover and called him "DeFuture."
That was Rupert Murdoch's machine telling conservative America who their next president would be.
Find out what DeSantis just admitted about what Fox did next – and what Donald Trump told him privately that explains everything.
Murdoch Built Him. Then Walked Away.
Fox News spent two years making Ron DeSantis a national name.
Softball interviews. Glowing coverage. The full Murdoch machine pushing him as the next great conservative hope.
Then DeSantis launched his campaign, Trump surged in the polls, and the knives came out.
Fox insiders told Rolling Stone the Murdochs are "transactional and can smell a loser a mile away."
DeSantis confirmed it himself in a new interview with Graham Bensinger.
Fox News "made an editorial decision" not to showcase him once the race heated up in 2023.
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/2047279764218450405?s=20
The network that created his national brand went silent exactly when he needed it most.
Trump Saw It All Coming
Donald Trump watched every bit of it unfold – and when DeSantis finally ran into him after the campaign, Trump told him exactly what went wrong.
"'You should have attacked me.' He's like, 'You never attacked me,'" DeSantis told Bensinger, recalling the conversation.
Trump wasn't angry.
He was almost matter-of-fact.
He understood the dynamic better than anyone: without Fox pushing him, DeSantis had no vehicle to take the fight to Trump directly.
And DeSantis confirmed he never tried to build one.
"Part of the reason I didn't, I mean, honestly, I like him," DeSantis said of Trump.
https://twitter.com/LivCaputo/status/2047038554832838987?s=20
He spent months campaigning and watched his media support evaporate – and his explanation for not fighting back is that he personally liked his opponent.
The Conservative Media Lesson Nobody Is Learning
Reagan didn't wait for Walter Cronkite to make him relevant.
He built his own operation through radio, direct mail, and relentless grassroots organizing – then took on a sitting Republican president in 1976 and nearly beat him.
DeSantis put all his chips on the conservative media infrastructure Murdoch controls.
When that infrastructure decided Trump was better for ratings, DeSantis had nothing left.
"A lot of those people were either silent or they were backing Trump," DeSantis admitted. "I didn't realize that until much later."
He didn't realize it until much later.
Every Republican who wants to challenge a Trump-aligned candidate in the future just got handed the blueprint for what not to do.
Fox News is a business.
https://twitter.com/RyanSaavedra/status/2046648571449979116?s=20
The Murdochs are operators.
They do not have your back when the math stops working.
DeSantis is finishing up his final seven months as Florida governor.
Speculation about a Trump administration role keeps circulating, though sources close to the President say it isn't happening.
Whatever comes next for him, DeSantis walked out of 2024 with one lesson learned the hard way: the network that crowns you will cut you loose the moment you stop winning.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis says Donald Trump wondered why DeSantis didn't attack him more in 2024," Florida Politics, April 22, 2026.
- Tim Dickinson, "Murdoch and Fox Are Souring on DeSantis," Rolling Stone, July 12, 2023.
- Alex Thompson and Sara Fischer, "Conservative media's tone shift on Ron DeSantis," Axios, July 12, 2023.
- Paul Steinhauser, "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis drops out of 2024 presidential race, endorses Trump," Fox News, January 22, 2024.
