The once-favorite newspaper of Donald Trump is continuing to further the gap between itself and the former president, dismissing Trump as simply "Florida man" in its coverage of his highly anticipated 2024 presidential run.
As many media outlets rushed to cover Trump's Tuesday night announcement, the New York Post's Wednesday morning edition seemed disinterested in the White House bid, relegating the story to page 26 and leaving the front page with a banner at the bottom that read "Florida Man Makes Announcement."
The Post—whose support as one of Trump's most supportive friends in the media dates back to his 2016 presidential campaign—has recently turned its back on Trump and embraced a new GOP star as the 2024 presidential race begins. The paper's turning of the tide reflects a trend that's been seen among several conservative outlets and pundits, who have connected the disappointing midterm election for the Republicans to the former president.
The morning after Election Day, the Post plastered Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the cover, dubbing him "DeFuture" in a headline that drew Trump's ire.
A day later, the former president released a statement calling DeSantis "an average Republican Governor with great Public Relations" and saying, "NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post, is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious."
Trump's relationship with the Post, the tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch since 1976, has rapidly deteriorated since he left office last year. The paper was sharply critical of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and deemed him "Trumpty Dumpty" on its front page last Thursday.
"Don (who couldn't build a wall) had a great fall—can all the GOP's men put the party back together again?" The Post's November 10 standfirst read.
The cover revealed that the Post, like other Murdoch-owned media, was no longer broadly backing Trump. The editorial board of Murdoch's Wall Street Journal also called Trump "the Republican Party's Biggest Loser" last week, declaring that the former president "has now flopped in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022."
On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that Murdoch would not support Trump in a third bid for the presidency. A source from News Crop told the newspaper, "We have been clear with Donald. There have been conversations between them during which Rupert made it clear to Donald that we cannot back another run for the White House."
Yet, that same night, Trump took the stage at Mar-a-Lago to declare his candidacy for the next presidential election, announcing that "America's comeback starts right now."
On Wednesday, page 26 of the New York Post read "Been there, Don that."
"With just 720 days to go before the next election, a Florida retiree made the surprise announcement Tuesday night that he was running for president," the article read. "In a move no political pundit saw coming, avid golfer Donald J. Trump kicked things off at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified-documents library."
"He has stated that his qualifications for office include being a 'stable genius,'" it said. "Trump also served as the 45th president."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
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