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Rupert Murdoch.
- Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch reportedly called President Donald Trump "a f---ing idiot" after a conversation the two had about Silicon Valley during the transition period.
- The revelation came about in columnist Michael Wolff's upcoming book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."
Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch reportedly called President Donald Trump "a f---ing idiot" after a conversation the two men had to discuss Trump's December 2016 meeting with Silicon Valley elite, according to a soon-to-be-released book from columnist Michael Wolff.
Excerpts from the book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," were published Wednesday by The Guardian and New York magazine. In the New York excerpt, Wolff wrote that Trump called Murdoch following a transition meeting at Trump Tower with tech leaders.
Murdoch asked how the meeting went.
"Oh, great, just great," Trump said. "These guys really need my help. Obama was not very favorable to them, too much regulation. This is really an opportunity for me to help them."
"Donald," Murdoch responded. "For eight years these guys had Obama in their pocket. They practically ran the administration. They don't need your help."
Murdoch suggested to Trump that taking a more liberal approach to the handling of H-1B visas, a program highly utilized by the tech industry and one it hoped Trump would not curtail, would be difficult to pull off while maintaining authenticity on his hardline immigration rhetoric.
"We'll figure it out," Trump told Murdoch.
"What a fucking idiot," Murdoch said, shrugging as he hung up the call.
The White House pushed back on the book Wednesday, particularly eviscerating former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was quoted extensively in the excerpts.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Wolff's book was "filled with false & misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House."
"Participating in a book that can only be described as trashy tabloid fiction exposes their sad desperate attempts at relevancy," she said.
Bannon, who appeared to have participated at length for the book, has long held animosity toward Murdoch, the News Corp executive and founder of Fox News.