It’s Donald Trump vs. Rupert Murdoch

United States President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion defamation case against The Wall Street Journal, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The conservative financial paper, published from New York, carried a report saying that Trump had written a birthday greeting letter to Jack Epstein, the financier who was accused of using underage age girls for sex at his parties.

The letter carried the name of ‘Donald’. Trump had vehemently denied the charge implied in the report that he was friends with Epstein and knew about his scandalous background. Trump wrote in his social media portal Truth Social, “We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is The Wall Street Journal.”

He went on to say in the same post, “I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case.” A Dow Jones statement said, “We have full confidence in the rigour and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”

Trump’s confrontation with Murdoch is one with serious implications for the two and more fatal than Trump’s clash with Elon Musk, the tycoon who owns the electric carmaker Tesla, Space X, which operates the space shuttle, and Starlink, the low orbit communications satellite network. The clash between Trump and Musk was one of egos, and partly on differences over the tariffs issue. Musk has been a confidant of Trump for the first few months of Trump’s second term as president.

Murdoch has kept himself aloof, and he has not befriended Trump the way he did Great Britain’s Labour leader and prime minister, Tony Blair, in the late 1990s. Murdoch is drawn into a battle with Trump without intending to do so. Murdoch is not a liberal media tycoon. He takes sides, and when he does not want a story to be printed it will not be printed. He will replace defiant editors wihout compunction.

The fact that The Wall Street Journal carried this explosive report implicating Trump is evidence that Murdoch quietly gave the nod. Murdoch is a shrewd businessman, who has built his media empire from Australia through Hong Kong to Britain and India. Murdoch is not a natural opponent of Trump, standing with the liberals. It is interesting as to why Murdoch chose to throw down the gauntlet as it were.

The reason for Trump’s belligerent response is understandable because the Epstein story about Trump’s connection with Epstein has not gone down well with his core support base of Make America Great Again (MAGA), who are conservative Christians, who believe in family values. The MAGA support base strongly disapproves Trump’s connection with Epstein. And there is the danger that it will spiral out of control and undermine his political credentials.

It is not surprising that Trump is a worried man, and instead of his customary bluster what is on display is uncharacteristic panic in his response to the story published in The Wall Street Journal. The demand for $10 billion is the largest ever claimed in a defamation case in the United States. But Trump’s lawyers will have to prove that The Wall Street Journal has published the story about Trump with maliciousness and despite knowing that it was false.

The courts will allow for a genuine mistake if the reporters and the newspaper editors did not know that it was a false story. Trump’s lawyers will have to prove intentional malice of The Wall Street Journal. It is not an easy thing to do. So, it is a tough legal battle with Trump and Murdoch ranged against each other.