President Donald Trump was nearly banned from appearing on his favorite television channel after he broke its "golden rule," according to a new report.
The Daily Beast reported on Monday that unsealed documents show Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch telling star Fox News host Sean Hannity not to book Trump because he was using his airtime to attack the channel. The exchange followed an appearance by Trump in October 2020, where he attacked two of Fox News' journalists, according to the report.
“Sean, sorry, but the president is not coming back on air if he uses it to attack us,” Murdoch wrote to Hannity, according to the report. “It is the same rule we have with the other side. This is a golden rule."
The document obtained by The Daily Beast redacted Hannity's response, the report adds. Trump was invited back on-air about a month later after Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan's father, told him in an email that the channel is "getting killed" in terms of audience numbers.
The documents were unsealed as part of the $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News for claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
They arrive at a politically vulnerable time for Trump. He recently faced a stinging rebuke by his party after they overwhelmingly voted to support legislation forcing him to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Trump had sought to prevent the files from being released and even tried to pressure Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) into voting against the bill.

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