Comment

John Hewson
Is this peak Trump?

The platform formerly known as Twitter continues to entertain – at once a cesspit and a treasure-trove. The posts following the announcement that United States President Donald Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch for US$10 billion didn’t disappoint. My favourite tweet was from Carl Smith: “Blimey, rooting for the Dirty Digger was never on my bingo card.” Along with, “Have at it God”, followed by quotes from Isaiah. This cage fight (with calls to throw Elon Musk in as well) is shaping up to epic proportions and understandably so. The American mood is shifting and Donald Trump can feel it.

The latest polls show his approval rating dropping further, notably with more disapproving of his signature hardline immigration policies. The economic consequences of his deportation initiatives, as well as his aggressive tariffs, are being recognised. His so-called “peace talks” are going nowhere on all fronts and, now, even his MAGA base is chafing over the administration’s withholding of documents related to his former friend, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump campaigned loudly on transparency relating to a range of conspiracy theories, from aliens to the JFK assassination. He whipped up the pack with promises to release all “evidence” and to make public all files. He went to great lengths to harness a paranoid base, and included in his tirades a commitment to release documents of the investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking minors. Trump made it all about the character and crimes of Epstein himself, with a dash of blaming the Democrats and former president Joe Biden for an ill-defined “hoax” thrown in for good measure.

But the danger all along for the president has been his own history with Epstein, including allegations from several women implicating Trump himself. The MAGA crowd’s demands for the release of what they believe is a list of paedophiles connected to Epstein spilled over into anger as the president appeared to downplay the significance of the documents and to delay their release.

And this month, The Wall Street Journal threw oil onto the fire, publishing a “bawdy” letter Trump had sent to Epstein for the since-disgraced financier’s 50th birthday in 2003.

According to the WSJ, Trump’s letter was “several lines of a typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker, and signed with a squiggly “Donald”. Trump dismissed the allegations as “fake”, adding “it was not the way I talk” and claiming he “never wrote a picture in my life” – prompting several reports depicting sketches he has not only drawn but also sold. “I told Rupert Murdoch that it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I am going to sue his ass off, and that of his third-rate newspaper”.

The president promptly launched a defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and his well-respected paper. But not, apparently, before calling the recently retired head of News Corp to have the story pulled. Just imagine how that conversation went. The article ran, making the 94-year-old Murdoch – arguably Trump’s greatest enabler – the surprise darling of social media with cries of “Rupert, c’mon Aussie c’mon”.

Trump is seeking US$10 billion in damages, punitive damages, court costs and other relief. Arguably his bigger challenge, though, is to shore up the support of his base. Trump described his action on his platform, Truth Social, as “against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal. ... 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”.

Dow Jones, the publisher of the WSJ, says it stands by the accuracy of the story. And the Journal retains, even under Murdoch, a record of upholding strong reporting, even when that reporting takes aim at powerbrokers. In 2012, for instance, it stood by the reporter and the story that provoked a libel lawsuit from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The then chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp, who was fighting a wrongful dismissal case brought by the former chief executive of his Macau operations, sued over the reporter’s description of Adelson as “foul-mouthed”. In the end, both sides agreed the suit would be dismissed, the story would stand and each side would bear its own legal costs. The Epstein issue is gargantuan in comparison, but it may prove just as much an own goal for the complainant. The world waits with bated breath.

Donald Trump now risks the ire of a disillusioned base, haunted by the ghost of Epstein. The president, who initially turned on his critics, calling them “weaklings” for believing “bullshit”, is scrambling to re-establish his credibility with them. Having built a cult-like fervour around his conspiracy theories, he is struggling to sell this one as fake news. The implications are particularly bad, as he doesn’t want to be accused of protecting paedophiles, and suspicion has turned hard on him. His supporters see him as their champion and the enemy of what he himself has described as the “Deep State”.

Trump is finally looking rattled, weakened by persistent questions from even friendly media outlets that he simply won’t answer. The frustrating thing is this QAnon-style drama is playing out against the backdrop of the successful passing of his One Big Beautiful Bill Act which, among other things, will end healthcare for millions, add trillions to the national deficit and further disadvantage the poor while making the rich wealthier. The media seems more powerfully drawn to both the Epstein saga and to Trump’s swollen ankles.

The president’s responses on the Epstein issue nevertheless suggest he sees himself as beyond reproach. Having gotten away with so much in terms of his past bad behaviour, from being a convicted felon, an alleged rapist and boasting of having groped women without consent, he ignores the history of former presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton – whose legacies were both destroyed by their own hubris.

Trump has bluffed his way into two presidencies, and may be trying to orchestrate the possibility of a third. His strange alt world seems finally to be losing its magical glow for millions of captivated Americans, however. The bullet-repelling giant of a man is starting to look a bit crumbly. His boastful claims of business genius, celebrating the “art of the deal” and his original and compelling statement – from the final days of the Iowa primary election campaign back in January 2016 – that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any votes, okay?” are seemingly losing their lustre. He is simply starting to look like an old guy with cankles who overplayed his hand. Like his famous hairline, the crowds may soon be receding.

All this suggests to me the possibility that Trump is gearing up to manufacturing some “national crisis” that would allow him to effectively cancel the midterm elections. He has already unleashed an unprecedented attack on Barack Obama, accusing the former president of “treason”, mustering an extraordinary report from his head of intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to claim that Obama’s administration sought to implicate Trump in Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The Justice Department has now announced a task force to look into these unsubstantiated allegations.

Whether this succeeds in distracting Trump’s supporters from their focus on Epstein remains to be seen. At this stage, though, the president’s prospects in the midterm elections look rocky. The Republicans face significant losses in both houses, increasing the president’s risk of being impeached. On two prior occasions, 2019 and 2020, his impeachment was endorsed only by the House of Representatives and rejected both times by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Now, to Rupert. I’m tempted to wonder, is this the ageing mogul’s come-to-God moment? Finally doing something for the public good? Having weathered the boastful claims from Elon Musk about social media overtaking traditional methods of news delivery, scornfully referring to newspapers and such as “legacy media”, is Murdoch now determined to show them who actually has the power in the room?

The adage goes, “If it’s not written, it was never said.” Murdoch, now chairman emeritus of the empire he has handed to his son Lachlan, can still demonstrate the power of the press, showing social media up as the gossipy graffiti vehicle that it is. Rupert has built presidents and prime ministers, and almost as often reduced them to rubble. Perhaps now in his twilight years, Rupert, with ink still in his veins, wants to reassert the importance, the relevance of being a journalist and the responsibility that carries: to investigate and report the truth. I doubt he’s bothered by Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit and I’m certain that on this one, rare point, millions of Australians are cheering on our most famous expat.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on July 26, 2025 as "Is this peak Trump?".

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