Fox Corp chief told Sean Hannity that Trump could not go on air in 2020 if he attacked network

Mon, 24 Nov 2025

Even before the 2020 election, tensions were high between Fox News executives and Trump, new documents show

• What happened at Fox News after the 2020 election? Documents reveal new details

New revelations about the tense relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump in the fall of 2020 have emerged in a trove of thousands of court documents released Sunday as part of a massive defamation lawsuit filed against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic.

One exchange showed that Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox News parent company Fox Corp, told star anchor Sean Hannity in a 1 October 2020 text chain that Trump could not appear on Fox again if he attacked the network.