This month, US President Donald Trump has announced that he filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and his owners, the Murdoch family, after the journal reported a report that the Republican agent would have sent a letter with a birthday message to a nude woman Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump currently faces wear and tear today because his government confirmed that the financier’s death in 2019, when awaiting trial on sexual trafficking, was a suicide and because he claimed that a list of famous Epstein clients does not exist, contrary to theories of US president’s supporters.
The agent claims that he is not the author of the drawing revealed by the WSJ. “I’m looking forward to Rupert Murdoch [fundador do clã] Witness in my process against him and his ‘mound of trash’ by WSJ. It will be an interesting experience! ”Trump wrote on the Truth Social network.
The process draws attention because the communication groups of the Murdoch, Fox Corporation and News Corp family (since 2023 administered by Lachlan, the eldest son of Rupert), have been decisive in building Trump’s political career: Fox News and Tabloid The New York Post, especially republican supporters and fierce democratic opponents.
In his book “The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Empire” (released in Brazil by Publisher Objective), journalist Michael Wolff stated that this relationship contradicted Personal impressions of Rupert Murdoch.
More linked to newspapers than television and the internet, the Australian -born tycoon despises Trump and preferred other Republicans, described Wolff.
In private conversations, it referred to the New York businessman as an “tremendous idiot”, but realized that Trump’s presence in his press agencies (especially Fox News) attracted public and allowed them to support him.
It was not an unhappy relationship, however: by 2023, Fox News agreed to pay $ 787.5 million to the Dominion voting machine manufacturer, in an agreement to end a lawsuit after commentators of the station endorsed theories that there was fraud to elect Joe Biden in the dispute against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Before this agreement, in the 2022 middle term elections, when candidates supported by Trump failed, Fox News and the New York Post tried to sell Florida’s governor, Ron Discantis, like the future of the Republicans and turned against Trump.
“What the results of Tuesday night suggest is that Trump is perhaps the deepest vote repellent in modern American history,” wrote John Podhoretz, a NY Post columnist.
According to Wolff’s book in 2023, Rupert Murdoch instructed Lachlan to take Trump out of the air and promote disantis on Fox News.
However, when it began to be clear that Trump would pass as a tractor by the 2024 Republican primary and that he would return to the White House, the Murdoch family again supported the businessman.
“Today, Trump displays the same strength and vigor of 2016, despite the shameful and unprecedented instrumentalization of the justice system against him, two attempts at murder and the constant and very familiar flood of press attaches against him,” said the New York Post in October by declaring support to the Republican in the dispute with Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump, who has called Rupert Murdoch a “legendary”, returned the affection, always giving many interviews to Fox News, and as proof of affinity between president and broadcaster, indicated 23 names of the news channel for his second term – including defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
In February, Trump received Rupert in the White House and covered the tycoon of praise, but signaled at the time that the relationship was already compromised by hurt.
“Just respect, I have a lot of respect for Rupert Murdoch. I disagree with him many times with The Wall Street Journal, but okay. We already disagree before. And I’m sure they had no idea what [os repórteres do jornal] They were talking, ”said Trump.
From “legendary” to “Mount of Garbage”, as Trump referred to WSJ, it was a long way-but, considering that the Murdoch have tried to “get rid” of the Republican and failed, the future of one of the most fertile relationships in US history between a politician and a large press group is hard to predict.
