Rupert v Donald. What will the Epstein story bring next?

First Elon, now Rupert. Donald Trump is losing his most powerful media allies. In the colosseum of modern media, titans are sharpening their swords.

First Elon, now Rupert. Donald Trump is fast losing his most powerful media allies. In the colosseum of modern media, titans are sharpening their swords. The question now: can they pierce the armor of Teflon Don?

A little over a month ago, Elon Musk stirred the pot on X by floating a rumor that Trump appeared in the Epstein files. Musk deleted the post soon after and admitted he'd “gone too far.” But the spark had been lit. Within weeks, the WSJ owned by Rupert Murdoch, ran a story claiming Trump had sent the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy birthday card for his 50th, including a cryptic reference to a shared “secret.”

True to form, Trump responded with fire. Channeling his old mentor Roy Cohn, "deny everything and fight,” he hit the WSJ with a TEN BILLION DOLLAR defamation suit; a bigly number straight out of a Mike Myers movie. Of course, this isn't new territory. Trump has threatened or sued nearly every major outlet: CBS, ABC, CNN, the New York Times, even the Des Moines Register. He once went after the Chicago Tribune’s architecture critic—for a mere $500 million.

While Trump has long used litigation as performance art, his relationship with Murdoch carries deeper stakes. Rupert Murdoch might feel he’s already paid the Trump tariff after Fox News, the crown jewel of his empire, shelled out $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, after some anchors went all in on Trump’s baseless election fraud claims. The biggest known media settlement in history was a financial and reputational gut punch. But payback is a dish best served cold.

Meanwhile, cracks in the Trump-Murdoch relationship have grown. Whether or not you believe Michael Wolff’s revelation that Murdoch once called Trump a “f---ing idiot,” their policy splits—on immigration, tariffs, Ukraine—are public and profound. Reports of Murdoch appearing in Trump’s box at a FIFA World Cup event on July 13 were quickly contradicted by sources who tell me Rupert wasn’t at the event at all. The optics remain murky. The Daily Mail’s story about JD Vance’s solo visit to the Murdoch ranch in Montana has fueled more conspiracy theories about the rupture.

The standoff evokes another media brawler: Robert Maxwell, the father of Ghislaine. The late, loud, overweight publishing tycoon, who owned the Daily Mirror and the NY Daily News, clashed with Murdoch over media turf for decades. Like Trump, Maxwell threatened lawsuits against the press until he fell off his yacht while taking a leak overboard in the middle of the night. Maxwell’s death came as he was about to be exposed as a financial fraud and it stirs comparisons with Epstein. Was it an accident or suicide? Was Maxwell an Israeli spy? Ghislaine, now serving time in Tennessee, for helping procure young girls for Epstein, has been silent—but she’s set to tell-all. And Elon Musk, ever mercurial, continues his to flood X with criticism of Trump over the handling of the Epstein case.

In the meantime my sources are asking what the Fox News hosts will say about it all? Will loyalty lie with their employer or with the man who still commands their audience? Can Sean Hannity stand by Trump while his network owners are under legal fire? Both Fox and News Corp are set to report earnings on August 5, perhaps the Wall Street analysts can shed some light on whether its material. News Corp stock is down 1.5% in the past five trading days but Fox is faring better. Fox News is the most watched of all TV networks in prime time so far this summer. Perhaps the lawsuit will fade into the background, a bark louder than its bite. But if the Epstein news cycle continues to turn up more unpleasant connections, Trump’s fight with the Murdochs could turn into ugly.

Howard Polskin, founder of The Righting, has noticed a shift. He tracks how right-wing media cover Trump, and says that the Administration’s White House Wire, a Drudge Report style aggregator of positive news stories has continued to link to Fox News, “but the Journal isn’t showing up at all since the article dropped. It makes me wonder where all of this goes,” Polskin said.

Trump and Murdoch go back nearly 50 years, both shaping and exploiting the Manhattan tabloid scene. Susan Mulcahy, former Page Six editor, has detailed how Trump and Roy Cohn used the New York Post to mythologize Trump’s rise. (That interview is here.) Trump even tried to buy the Post at one point.

Now, he’s doing something more audacious, trying to silence an entire media ecosystem with lawsuits while booting the WSJ from his golf trip to Scotland; Rupert and Trump’s ancestral homeland. In researching Murdoch’s life story for a book I’m writing I’ve learned that he’s survived far worse lawsuits in his time. He’s outlasted prime ministers, presidents, and publishers alike. Trump may sue, shout, and smear, but at 94, Rupert Murdoch has eight decades of media warfare behind him. He has watched political leaders self immolate and sometimes he has helped them out of the door. The pen, as ever, may prove mightier than a gladiator’s sword - or a lawsuit.

🧑‍💼 Author Note:

I’m a media and marketing journalist currently writing a new biography about Rupert Murdoch for Grand Central Publishing. Note: I used to work as a media reporter at the New York Post (2010-2017.)

You can read my latest story for The Ankler on the buyers for cast-off cable channels here.

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