‘I'm 94 years old and will not be intimidated': Has Trump met his match in Rupert Murdoch?
'Sack the f*** up,' the Daily Show star exclaimed, calling for media conglomerates to stop running scared and stand up to the president's legal bullying, which CBS employees have described as a 'Trump shakedown.'
Could it be that Stewart has already found his unlikely champion in the form of a nonagenarian right-wing media mogul who was the driving force behind Trump's rise to power? That is increasingly looking like that might be the case.
Feeling emboldened by Paramount and Disney paying him off to settle easily winnable lawsuits, the president followed through on his days-long threat and sued Rupert Murdoch on Friday for $10 billion after the Wall Street Journal published a much-anticipated story about Trump's 'bawdy' birthday letter to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Before firing off his defamation suit, the president spent the previous few days desperately trying to get Murdoch and his paper to kill the story, which promised to further fan the flames of the controversy over the administration's handling of the Epstein files as it detailed Trump's lengthy kinship with the disgraced financier.
'This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story,' Trump shouted at WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker two days before the story was published. 'I'm gonna sue the Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else.'
Following the bombshell report's publication last Thursday night, the president whined on Truth Social that Murdoch told him 'he would take care of it,' but apparently 'did not have the power to do so.' Despite legal experts saying he has an exceptionally weak case and that it could backfire by exposing him to further scrutiny in the Epstein matter, the president went ahead and fired off his latest legal tantrum on Friday.
Meanwhile, not only has the Wall Street Journal and its publisher Dow Jones stood by its reporting, but the paper dropped another blockbuster on Wednesday by revealing that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that his name appeared several times in the Epstein files. That story further helps explain why the administration reversed course this month and decided against revealing more documents in the Epstein case.
It also appears that Murdoch himself has indicated behind the scenes that he has no plans to back down anytime soon.
'I'm 94 years old and I will not be intimidated,' Murdoch said, the Washington Post reported, citing three people familiar with the Fox News owner's private conversations.
While the Post also notes that the president's latest volley in his all-out war on the media 'crosses a new Rubicon' as he is 'lashing out at one of his most powerful media allies,' what it really lays bare is how the Trump-Murdoch relationship has always been one of convenience between two men who see themselves as the leading figure in the conservative movement.
Trump's lawsuit, and Murdoch's potential willingness to fight it to the end, could be the final crescendo to the fraught alliance between the two right-wing titans.
As Puck's Dylan Byers observed this week, unlike the multi-tiered conglomerates or overleveraged companies that have bent the knee to Trump recently, 'the 94-year-old media titan is a different kind of defendant' as he has 'the resources, the freedom, and the fortitude to wage a legal fight with the president.'
'I don't think he has any intention of settling. Why would he?' one Murdoch source told Byers, noting that the mogul could 'relish the fight' against Trump.
At the same time, it appears that both Trump and Murdoch understand how important it is to keep Fox News – Murdoch world's crown jewel – out of the fray for the time being. The president's lawsuit was carefully compartmentalized to avoid pulling in the right-wing network – which the president enjoys a symbiotic relationship with and uses as a staffing agency for his administration.
All the while, Fox News has all but ignored the ongoing Epstein saga in recent days and has largely avoided mentioning either the Wall Street Journal's story or the president's lawsuit against their boss, which has also led the White House to punish Fox's sister publication by pulling their reporters off the travel press pool.
Instead, the network's pro-Trump hosts have gone all in on trumpeting the administration's efforts to distract from the Epstein mess – specifically glomming onto Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's misleading and false claims that the Obama administration engaged in a treasonous 'coup' with its Russia election interference assessment. In fact, the network has mentioned former President Barack Obama three times more than Epstein since Gabbard released her report.
Additionally, senior members of the Trump administration have continued to flock to Fox News for softball interviews and friendly sitdowns that have completely sidestepped the Epstein controversy. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has blasted Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal repeatedly over the Epstein-Trump story, was asked to react to Hunter Biden's profane podcast appearance in two separate Fox News interviews.
This odd dichotomy prompted NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo to press attorney Alejandro Brito – who is representing the president in his lawsuit – why Trump's allies 'keep using Fox News' if Murdoch is so 'inimical to the cause' and essentially public enemy #1. Brito essentially shrugged and dodged Cuomo's pointed question.
According to the New York Times, people close to the president have said that he 'considers Fox News — and for that matter, The New York Post, another business owned by Mr. Murdoch — to be in a separate, friendlier category, where he has warm relations with various personalities.' For example, on the same day Trump filed his lawsuit, the president promoted his close pal Sean Hannity's show, urging his followers to watch later that evening because Hannity 'really gets it.'
In the end, Murdoch has barely constrained his disdain for Trump over the years, and has at times hoped to even make him a 'non-person' within GOP politics – especially when the reality star-turned-MAGA king has damaged Fox News' balance sheet.
Early on in Trump's political rise, Murdoch hoped to stop the former Apprentice star dead in his tracks with the first Republican primary debate of the 2016 presidential race. 'This has gone on long enough,' he told his then-lieutenant Roger Ailes, directing the Fox News chief to have the moderators pummel Trump with hard-hitting questions.
Of course, after Trump publicly attacked Megyn Kelly following the debate and the right-wing base ate it up, Murdoch and the network eventually relented and sided with the eventual president over their star anchor. The on-again/off-again friendship, meanwhile, would continue over the course of the next decade.
After keeping things congenial throughout Trump's first term, tensions once again escalated between the two following the 2020 presidential election, which saw Fox News become the first network to call the battleground state of Arizona for Joe Biden.
That decision resulted in a domino effect that saw Fox News' ratings briefly collapse as furious MAGA supporters fled to fringe right channels that would peddle Trump's election lies, eventually leading to the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News – which began trumpeting election fraud conspiracies to lure back viewers – that would cost Murdoch $787.5 million.
Following Trump's exit from office in 2021, the two men barely talked for years, and Trump was even given a 'soft ban' from appearing on Fox for a period of time. Murdoch also attempted to use his vast media empire to back potential challengers to Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, particularly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The Fox News audience, however, was having none of it and Trump easily secured the nomination – and Murdoch's backing once more.
Still, even before Trump decided to take Murdoch to court, the president continued to air his gripes about the coverage he was receiving from the mogul's news outlets – especially the Wall Street Journal. Hosting Murdoch in an Oval Office meeting in February, Trump groused when a reporter asked about a recent WSJ op-ed blasting him for starting the 'dumbest trade war in history.'
'I'm going to have to talk to him about that,' Trump grumbled with Murdoch sitting mere feet away.
Amid the president's ongoing assault on legacy and mainstream media outlets, whether it's coercing news organizations to settle frivolous lawsuits or pressuring billionaires to change their newspapers' editorial direction or defunding public media groups, some have wondered if Murdoch will stand up and be the improbable savior of the First Amendment.
'Is this what we have come to—depending on Rupert Murdoch to stand up for press freedom?' Tina Brown, the former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and The Daily Beast, wrote recently. 'Amidst the Trumpian slide towards authoritarian bullying of the press, it raises the increasingly urgent question of whom we can turn to keep independent journalism alive.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
2 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
US-EU deal sets 15% tariff on most goods and averts threat of trade war
The United States and the European Union have agreed to a trade deal setting a 15% tariff on most goods, US President Donald Trump announced, staving off higher import taxes on both sides that might have sent shockwaves through economies around the world. The announcement came after Mr Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Mr Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Their private meeting was a culmination of months of bargaining, with the White House deadline of August 1 approaching for imposing punishing tariffs on the 27-member EU. 'It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it's going to be great for both parties,' Mr Trump said. The agreement, he said, was 'a good deal for everybody' and 'a giant deal with lots of countries'. Ms von der Leyen said the deal 'will bring stability, it will bring predictability that's very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic'. Mr Trump said the EU had agreed to buy some 750 billion dollars' (£558 billion) worth of US energy and to invest 600 billion dollars (£446 billion) more in America, as well as making a major purchase of military equipment. The US leader said: 'We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%. 'We have a tariff of 15%. We have the opening up of all of the European countries.' Ms von der Leyen said the 15% tariffs were 'across the board, all inclusive' and that 'indeed, basically the European market is open'. Before the meeting began, Mr Trump pledged to change what he characterised as 'a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States'. 'I think both sides want to see fairness,' the Republican President told reporters. His EU Commission counterpart spoke of rebalancing. Ms von der Leyen said the US and EU combined have the world's largest trade volume, encompassing hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars. She added that Mr Trump was 'known as a tough negotiator and dealmaker'. 'But fair,' Mr Trump added. Together, the EU and the US are a market of 800 million people. And nearly 44 percent of global GDP. It's the biggest trade deal ever ↓ — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 27, 2025 For months, Mr Trump has threatened most of the world with large tariffs in hopes of shrinking major US trade deficits with many key trading partners. More recently, he had hinted that any deal with the EU would have to 'buy down' the currently scheduled tariff rate of 30%. During his comments before the deal was announced, he pointed to a recent US agreement with Japan that set tariff rates for many goods at 15% and suggested the EU could agree to something similar. Asked then if he would be willing to accept tariff rates lower than that, Mr Trump said 'no'. Joining Ms von der Leyen were Maros Sefcovic, the EU's chief trade negotiator; Bjorn Seibert, the head of von der Leyen's Cabinet; Sabine Weyand, the commission's directorate-general for trade, and Tomas Baert, head of trade and agriculture at the EU's delegation to the US. The US and EU seemed close to a deal earlier this month, but Mr Trump instead threatened the 30% tariff rate. The deadline for the Trump administration to begin imposing tariffs has shifted in recent weeks but is now firm, the administration insists. 'No extensions, no more grace periods. August 1, the tariffs are set, they'll go into place, Customs will start collecting the money and off we go,' US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News on Sunday. He added, however, that even after that 'people can still talk to President Trump. I mean, he's always willing to listen'. Without an agreement, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and car parts to beer and Boeing planes. If Mr Trump eventually followed through on his threat of tariffs against Europe, it could have made everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the United States.
North Wales Chronicle
2 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
US-EU deal sets 15% tariff on most goods and averts threat of trade war
The announcement came after Mr Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Mr Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Their private meeting was a culmination of months of bargaining, with the White House deadline of August 1 approaching for imposing punishing tariffs on the 27-member EU. 'It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it's going to be great for both parties,' Mr Trump said. The agreement, he said, was 'a good deal for everybody' and 'a giant deal with lots of countries'. Ms von der Leyen said the deal 'will bring stability, it will bring predictability that's very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic'. Mr Trump said the EU had agreed to buy some 750 billion dollars' (£558 billion) worth of US energy and to invest 600 billion dollars (£446 billion) more in America, as well as making a major purchase of military equipment. The US leader said: 'We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%. 'We have a tariff of 15%. We have the opening up of all of the European countries.' Ms von der Leyen said the 15% tariffs were 'across the board, all inclusive' and that 'indeed, basically the European market is open'. Before the meeting began, Mr Trump pledged to change what he characterised as 'a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States'. 'I think both sides want to see fairness,' the Republican President told reporters. His EU Commission counterpart spoke of rebalancing. Ms von der Leyen said the US and EU combined have the world's largest trade volume, encompassing hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars. She added that Mr Trump was 'known as a tough negotiator and dealmaker'. 'But fair,' Mr Trump added. Together, the EU and the US are a market of 800 million people. And nearly 44 percent of global GDP. It's the biggest trade deal ever ↓ — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 27, 2025 For months, Mr Trump has threatened most of the world with large tariffs in hopes of shrinking major US trade deficits with many key trading partners. More recently, he had hinted that any deal with the EU would have to 'buy down' the currently scheduled tariff rate of 30%. During his comments before the deal was announced, he pointed to a recent US agreement with Japan that set tariff rates for many goods at 15% and suggested the EU could agree to something similar. Asked then if he would be willing to accept tariff rates lower than that, Mr Trump said 'no'. Joining Ms von der Leyen were Maros Sefcovic, the EU's chief trade negotiator; Bjorn Seibert, the head of von der Leyen's Cabinet; Sabine Weyand, the commission's directorate-general for trade, and Tomas Baert, head of trade and agriculture at the EU's delegation to the US. The US and EU seemed close to a deal earlier this month, but Mr Trump instead threatened the 30% tariff rate. The deadline for the Trump administration to begin imposing tariffs has shifted in recent weeks but is now firm, the administration insists. 'No extensions, no more grace periods. August 1, the tariffs are set, they'll go into place, Customs will start collecting the money and off we go,' US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News on Sunday. He added, however, that even after that 'people can still talk to President Trump. I mean, he's always willing to listen'. Without an agreement, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and car parts to beer and Boeing planes. If Mr Trump eventually followed through on his threat of tariffs against Europe, it could have made everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the United States.
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Stephen Flynn jokes he'll be ‘washing hair' when Donald Trump visits Scotland
Stephen Flynn joked he will be washing his hair when Donald Trump visits the UK. The Scottish National Party's (SNP) Westminster leader, who is bald, told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that he will find "any excuse possible" to avoid meeting the US president on his trip to Scotland. While insisting it was 'absolutely right' that First Minister John Swinney meets Mr Trump, Mr Flynn quipped that he'd be 'looking after his own toddlers' while the Republican is in the country.
