The Jeffrey Epstein situation has the MAGA movement in a tizzy, and it seems hell bent on exposing prominent figures connected to the man who, it is said, engaged in paedophilia and other depraved activities.

President Donald Trump has said he doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about, and he has long ago dissociated himself from Epstein. 

Now it has been revealed by the Wall Street Journal that Attorney-General Pam Bondi told President Trump that he is in the Epstein files, and it could be embarrassing. Earlier this year, Elon Musk came out and said the reason why the US Government refuses to release the details of the files is that President Trump is mentioned.

Pam Bondi, perhaps, was seeking to protect her boss and is therefore reluctant to do the bidding of the MAGA base.

Of the brouhaha surrounding the Epstein files and talk of sex trafficking, President Trump wrote: “Their new scam is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein hoax, and my past supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line and sinker.

“Let those weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success because I don’t want their support anymore.”

Donald Trump must take great care not to let his success go to his head. It is six months since he took office after one of the greatest Presidential election performances in decades, and already, cracks and tensions are appearing.

He needs the MAGA base, and to alienate it could be to Trump’s detriment. They made Trump, and it is not the other way around. 

It is difficult to understand this fascination with Epstein and the likes of Candace Owens, Patrick Bet-David, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Glen Beck, making this a central plank of Trump’s presidency. Jeffrey Epstein was a pervert who allegedly killed himself in prison. Whatever secrets he had, he carried to the grave. What’s the big deal, and why are so many people getting worked up?

President Trump could be right-this is a great big nothing burger and serves as a distraction.

Then, the Wall Street Journal comes out with a story that Trump sent Epstein a bawdy drawing on his 50th birthday, which the president has denied, calling it “a fake”. He pleaded with the owner of the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, not to publish the story, but it was done in spite of him.

Owners of media operations are loath to tell their editors, reporters and other professionals that they can’t run certain stories. Of course, discretion is employed, but it is a slippery slope when the newsroom is commanded by the owner. Rupert Murdoch is aware of this.

As a result, President Donald Trump has slapped both Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal with a US$20 billion defamation lawsuit. He may be emboldened to do so, having bludgeoned many big American media houses into submission with a raft of lawsuits (ABC, CBS), which has made them cower due to his political power. American media now fear Donald Trump, and he knows it.

But Rupert Murdoch is an altogether different proposition. He is among the pre-eminent new barons of the last century, up there with the likes of Lord Max Beaverbrook, Lord Rothermere, William Randolph Hearst and Conrad Black. An argument can be made that he bettered all those guys.

Unlike Donald Trump, one doesn’t get the impression that he is a man always spoiling for a fight but rather is a man prepared to fight to the end-if he has to.

He has given the Wall Street Journal his unequivocal support on this matter and is willing to back his team.

Considering that the Australian media mogul controls Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post and New York Times, it could be folly for Trump to go to war with Murdoch over the Epstein files. If Rupert Murdoch gets annoyed and feels Trump is getting too big for his boots he can eviserate him with untold media power, rather like Emperor Palpatine zapped Luke Skywalker in ‘Return of the Jedi‘  (“ Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side. You have paid the price for your lack of vision”).

On President Trump taking out this US$20 billion lawsuit against him and the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch said:” I’m 94 years old and I will not be intimidated.”

You better believe it! The president is messing with the wrong man, and both he and the Republican Party can get badly hurt, costing them the next presidential election.

There’s a line in the movie ‘Gran Torino‘ (which is excellent, you should check it out) where Clint Eastwood tells a bunch of hood rats, “  Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while that you shouldn’t have f—— with?”  That’s me.”

That’s what we have here. Murdoch will bite back, and it will be vicious. Trump’s media support and inner circle should advise him to drop this because Murdoch can take not only Trump down but also all that they have accomplished. Trump is not only digging his own grave, he’s digging MAGA’s as well.

This prurient interest in the Epstein files may be to see the  Democrats go down once and fall, to see Barack Obama and Bill Clinton’s legacy tarnished. But it can have the opposite effect and prove to be Trump’s Waterloo.

It is doubtful whether Trump engaged in sex trafficking, paedophilia or anything criminal. Both he and Epstein were probably men about town, who had an eye for the ladies, nothing more.

“Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were both horny rich guys with an eye for young models,” wrote Michael Gross in his 1995 book, ‘Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women‘. 

That may be the sum of it, and in that respect, President Trump is right. MAGA is going down a path where it could lose its way, and for what? A pervy guy whose deeds caught up with him. Is this a reason to take on the most powerful man in media?

It’s too easy to say Logan Roy in the HBO show ‘Succession‘ is a depiction of Rupert Murdoch. He’s nothing like that character; rather, the Australian media tycoon comes off as a guy who is highly intelligent and can read situations well. He plays the long game. He masters his emotions, but he is not a man to be trifled with or to get on the wrong side.

Both the late British journalist Harold Evans and Michael Wolff have said that Murdoch is vindictive and vituperative. Evans once wrote, “ Rupert Murdoch is the stiletto, a man of method, a cold-eyed manipulator.” Now, both these journalists may have got stung taking on Murdoch and cried about it.

Does Donald Trump really want to get in the ring with Rupert Murdoch?  All that would do is put more of a spotlight on his connection to Epstein and create problems for him during his administration. Trump needs this Epstein situation to go away, not blow up in his face and taint what he has accomplished.