Financial Times is reporting this morning that they have confirmed that Trump’s son-in-law has indeed met with a media big-wig on setting up Trump-TV in the event Trump loses the election:
EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump's son-in-law has held talks to set up Trump TV after the presidential election https://t.co/fTiqGNFF9q pic.twitter.com/xtbWPpBqsd
— Financial Times (@FT) October 17, 2016
FINANCIAL TIMES – Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November.
Mr Kushner — an increasingly influential figure in the billionaire’s presidential campaign — contacted Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment bank, within the past couple of months, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Their conversation was brief and has not progressed since, the people said. Mr Bourkoff and Mr Kushner both declined to comment.
However, the approach suggests Mr Kushner and the Republican candidate himself are thinking about how to capitalise on the populist movement that has sprung up around their campaign in the event of an election defeat to Democrat Hillary Clinton next month.
Mr Trump, whose campaign is headed by populist digital media entrepreneur Stephen Bannon, has denied that he wants to start his own channel. “I have no interest in a media company. False rumour,” he told the Washington Post last month, following a Vanity Fair report that he and his advisers had explored the idea.
While FT notes that Mr. Ailes could not help with the Trump TV venture, per his exit contract with Fox News, there isn’t much else substantive to the article. We don’t know for sure if Team Trump has decided to pursue this or not. But we do know that they were at least interested in the idea since Trump became the nominee.