Today’s Washington Post ponders one of life’s cosmic mysteries: What happens to Fox News if Donald Trump is defeated? The piece points out that Fox has done fine, thank you very much, when it’s been the voice of opposition to Democratic administrations, and will therefore continue to rack up profits throughout a Biden presidency through its skillful employment of its usual calumnies, fabrications, and slanders.

But on whose behalf will all those calumnies be wielded: Trumpian Republicans or Republicans generally? After all, the entire Republican universe, such as it is, will unite in opposition to anything that Biden and the Democrats propose, just as every Republican in Congress—in the pre-Trump days—opposed every one of Barack Obama’s initiatives. Will Fox let Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio back in its tent? Or will it continue to define itself as the media tip of the Trumpian spear?

One determinative factor may be whether Rupert Murdoch shells out enough money to Trump that the then-ex-president gets his own nightly show. ("Enough" in this instance must mean at least enough to retire Trump’s mind-boggling debts.) If Trump goes Fox, that will settle this question, and the likes of Romney, if such still exist, may have to content themselves with appearances on some food networks.

As well, Fox now has a steady viewership of Trumpians, and it’s not likely to offend them by giving non-nativists and non–white supremacists any significant airtime. It’s become the Fabulist Voice of the Bigoted Right, and made a nice living in the process. Id and ego are united at Fox; why would Murdoch want to screw around with that?