Trump wants to start a digital media channel to take revenge on Fox News and usurp its audience when he leaves office, report says

• President Donald Trump is thinking about starting a digital media company to directly rival Fox News, Axios reported on Thursday, citing multiple sources.
• He would seek to appeal to his right-wing, populist followers, many of whom are likely to be Fox subscribers, the outlet reported.
• Fox News did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. But Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch said earlier this month that he would welcome competition from Trump.
• Trump is an avid viewer of Fox News but has been increasingly critical of its coverage during his presidency.

President Donald Trump is considering starting a digital media company to rival Fox News and siphon its viewers, Axios reported on Thursday, citing multiple sources.

"He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it," a source with detailed knowledge of Trump's intentions told the outlet.

Axios reported that Trump would seek to appeal to his right-wing, populist followers — many of whom are likely to be Fox News subscribers — with an online offering aimed at replacing the network.

Rather than creating a cable network, he would go straight to streaming, which is less cumbersome to set up, the source said.

One of his major advantages is his extensive email and phone contacts from campaigning, the Axios report said.

The president is widely reported to be an avid viewer of Fox News but has been increasingly critical of the network during his presidency. He has frequently plugged other right-wing networks such as One America News Network and Newsmax instead.

The New York Times reported that the Trump campaign was incensed last week by Fox News' calling Arizona for Joe Biden, with top allies contacting the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, in a bid to overturn the call.

Trump is "going to spend a lot of time slamming Fox," the source told Axios.

Commentators have long speculated about Trump forming a media empire following his political career. Five Republicans familiar with the conversations told Insider's Tom LoBianco and Lucia Moses that Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior advisor to the president, had again floated the idea of a Trump-branded network in October.

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Axios report.

But when asked in an earnings call on November 3 whether the company would welcome competition from Trump, Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch said: "We love competition. We have always thrived with competition.

"And we have strong competition now," Murdoch continued. "I would say the only difference today versus some years ago, as our audience has grown and our reach has grown, we see our competition as no longer only cable news providers, but also as the traditional broadcast networks."

The insight from the Axios report suggests that Trump is accepting the election result by envisioning a role for himself beyond the White House.

Though Insider and Decision Desk HQ, as well as other major news networks, last week projected Biden to win the presidency, Trump has still refused to concede.

Instead, the president has repeatedly pushed baseless claims of election fraud and has filed more than a dozen lawsuits in several swing states to challenge their election results. Some of those lawsuits have already been tossed out.

Multiple reports indicated that some in Trump's inner circle, including Kushner and first lady Melania Trump, had approached him about conceding the election.