RUPERT AND DONALD, SITTING IN A TREE...
but they're not kissing anymore
I thought I should follow up yesterday’s video with an interesting new development, just to make sure no one misses the through line.
The Wall Street Journal has published a birthday card from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, wishing him a year of “wonderful secrets” with a drawing of a naked woman and his signature curled into her pubic hair. Sure. Nothing to see there.
Characteristically, and very much in line with our conversation yesterday, Trump is now saying he will sue the Wall Street Journal for “nothing less than ten billion dollars” for the harm that this “hoax” is doing to him. Threatening the press when they come anywhere near exposing his malfeasance (or even when they don’t) is part of Trump’s modus operandi.
Rupert Murdoch, whose FOX News in many ways made Donald Trump, also owns the Wall Street Journal. Will he bow down before the feet of the king he helped create?
Additionally, there is scuttlebutt online among people who are arguably in-the-know, that this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding Trump’s involvement with Epstein’s world. They argue that the damn is breaking and that there’s more to come.
I remember Watergate and the drip drip drip of daily revelations that led up to Nixon’s resignation. I have no idea if this situation will become that drastic a problem for the President, but things are already at a fever pitch. And no matter what happens, there’s now a crack in Trump’s previously solid wall of MAGA support.
MAGA being in a civil war over the Epstein story is a major development, and one Trump obviously cares about. In an effort to quell the noise, he has directed Attorney General Bondi to release all grand jury testimony "pertinent" to the Epstein investigation. Ah! So one lesson to be learned here is that in the final analysis, people do have power.
President Trump said he had spoken to Murdoch, told him the story was a hoax, and that WSJ shouldn’t run with it. Now that it has, Trump has decided to sue the multi billionaire; it will be fascinating to see how Murdoch plays it from here. I sort of can’t imagine News Corp folding to Trump’s demands. But then stranger things have happened, and history is riddled with things that could have gone much differently if only this or that one detail had unfolded differently.
Donald Trump versus Rupert Murdoch is a show in and of itself. I’m sure wherever Shakespeare is now, he’s taking notes…
Shakespeare already anticipated this and wrote in Macbeth, "The truth will out". And the New Testament already anticipated this and says, "Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open, and whatever is covered up will be uncovered". (Mark 4:22). And our Buddhist brothers and sisters have known this forever as the principle of Karma. And these Universal laws apply to all of us, not just to Trump and his ilk.
I too was thinking of Watergate. I remember how riveting it was at the time as those drips landed. Remember the infamous 9-1/2 minutes missing from the tapes? Sort of like the 3-1/2 minutes missing from the video of Epstein in his cell? And of course the release of files that Bondi’s team is furiously working to cherry pick and redact so the many Trump references will be missing.