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Murdoch to Trump: ‘Time to calm down’

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/18/16 3:41 PM ET

Rupert Murdoch on Thursday urged Donald Trump to “calm down” after the GOP presidential candidate blasted the media mogul and his Wall Street Journal.

“Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down. If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!” Murdoch tweeted.

Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down. If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) February 18, 2016

The fight between the two businessmen started with a surprise poll from The Wall Street Journal and NBC News that found Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) edging out Trump, the longtime GOP front-runner, nationally.

{mosads}Trump claimed during an MSNBC townhall on Wednesday night that “somebody at the Wall Street Journal doesn’t like me,” and questioning the poll’s accuracy.

He continued to dismiss the poll in tweets on Thursday, calling it “a total joke” before also taking a shot at Murdoch’s Fox News. Trump has feuded with the network for months.

.@FoxNews is changing their theme from “fair and balanced” to “unfair and unbalanced.” But dying @WSJ is worse.Their phony poll is a joke!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2016

A Trump aide specifically blamed the poll on Murdoch, whom he named in a tweet. His campaign is touting a CBS poll from Thursday that found Trump in first place nationally among Republicans.

Murdoch, the chief of News Corp., has brushed off previous Trump attacks. He did take a shot at him during a GOP debate in December, calling the outspoken candidate “thin skinned.”

Tags 2016 GOP primary Donald Trump Rupert Murdoch Ted Cruz Wall Street Journal