Rupert Murdoch broke his three-day Twitter silence Wednesday morning to urge former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to join the 2016 White House race amid an ongoing feud with Republican front-runner — and fellow New York billionaire — Donald Trump.
“This is Bloomberg’s last chance,” Murdoch tweeted. “You never know until your hat is in the ring!”
“Events change everything,” the News Corp. boss added, cryptically, “especially during elections.”
Murdoch’s Fox News is currently engaged in a rapidly escalating war of words with Trump, who has vowed to skip Thursday night’s Republican debate, which is being hosted by the network.
The real estate mogul floated the boycott earlier this week over concerns that Fox News star and debate co-moderator Megyn Kelly would be “unfair” to him, prompting Fox to issue a statement ridiculing Trump’s comments.
Following a pre-rally press conference in Iowa City, Iowa, Tuesday night, Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told reporters the Donald would “definitely” be sitting out the debate.
This is not the first time Murdoch has encouraged Bloomberg to run for president: He suggested the idea last summer, tweeting that, with “Trump becoming a very serious candidate,” it was time “for [the] next billionaire candidate.”