Is NewsCorp the GOP's 'Smoke-Filled Room'?

Over at Hot Air, Allahpundit makes note of the fact that the two New York papers owned by Rupert Murdoch both recently ran editorials very critical of Donald Trump. He includes the following excerpt from one:

Image by Wellcome Images, via Wikimedia Commons, license.

Trump has become a prisoner of his own ego. He can't admit his tweeting and narcissism turned off millions. He won't stop insisting that 2020 was "stolen" even though he's offered no proof that it's true ...

Meanwhile, reports that Trump was pleased that the Jan. 6 crowd chanted for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged -- a truly reprehensible sentiment -- makes him unworthy for the office. Trump can't look past 2020. Let him remain there.

Look forward! The 2024 field is rich. You have Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley ... the list goes on. All candidates who embrace conservative policies without the preoccupations of the Don ...

Tune out the Jan. 6 hearings and binge-watch the new season of Stranger Things. Unsubscribe from Trump's daily emails begging for money. Then pick your favorite from a new crop of conservatives. Look to 2022, and 2024, and a new era. Let's make America sane again.

This by itself is unremarkable: Plenty of conservatives and non-leftists (like me) have big problems with Trump. And, as Allahpundit points out, Fox News giving negative coverage to Trump (or openly endorsing an opponent) would be a non-starter.

But other things, like a book deal for Ron DeSantis, are going on, and there is precedent from 2016 for a way for NewsCorp to "play an active, forceful role in that debate," as Murdoch put it late last year:

If there's any effort to take Trump down, I expect it'll follow the same 2016 playbook that bedeviled Cruz and his fans. Fox and the rest won't begin sniping at Trump, they'll simply lavish flattering coverage on one of his challengers to promote them. And since there's only one challenger who stands a chance of defeating him, that means lots of fawning press for Ron DeSantis.

This is rather speculative, but it doesn't sound unreasonable.

And, while Trump somehow completely owns a segment of the electorate and calls himself a Republican, it doesn't mean that there aren't members of that party who are uncomfortable with the caudillo-like Trump or who, being politicians, simply want him out of the way for their own shot at the Presidency.

-- CAV