July 18, 2025 11:08 AM UTC

Did Rupert Murdoch Just Double-Cross Donald Trump?

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• by: Colorado Pols

A bombshell story in the Wall Street Journal last night has opened a new front in the Beltway-consuming controversy over the Trump administration’s spectacularly failed attempt to bury the investigation into deceased billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein–describing a letter allegedly sent by now-President Donald Trump to Epstein on the occasion of the latter’s 50th birthday that…strongly implies knowledge and approval of Epstein’s sexual peccadilloes:

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.

CNN reports that Trump is now in a state of full attack against his former friend and crucial assistant in Trump’s rise to power, WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch:

“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday night.

He followed up on Friday morning and said “I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ.”

Trump has a long history of legal threats against news outlets, and doesn’t always follow through with actual lawsuits. In this case, he did not specify what exactly he’d sue the newspaper for, though his camp referenced “defamatory lies.”

What we can say in the absence of more information is that Murdoch and his minions certainly considered the likelihood of being sued by the litigious POTUS, and wouldn’t have gone to press without a defensible story. The choice to release this story through the WSJ instead of a less credible Murdoch empire outlet also tells us they are ready to stand behind their reporting. If it’s real, this is another devastating development for Trump’s credibility on his relationship with Epstein, after a week that has thrown his closest supporters into a tailspin of denial and despair.

The one abiding truth of Trump is that no matter how bad things get, there has never been a breaking point.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t one.