Bring it on: Is this Murdoch’s late-stage attempt to protect his legacy?

It may not be a particularly appealing visual, but a 94-year-old Rupert Murdoch and a 79-year-old Donald Trump in metaphorical boxer shorts exchanging blows and bouncing off the ropes in a reputation slugfest is playing out on the world stage. And the massive audience is reaching for the popcorn.

After years of showing public support for Trump, Murdoch’s decision to allow his Wall Street Journal to target Trump’s vulnerable soft underbelly – his relationship with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – looks like the media mogul’s late-stage attempt to protect his legacy.

Rupert Murdoch arrives for Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.Credit: AP

The US president’s lawyers are using Murdoch’s advanced age and questionable health to push for the nonagenarian billionaire to be deposed post-haste in the $US10 billion ($15 billion) lawsuit that Trump has slapped on Murdoch and the WSJ’s publisher.

In other words, Trump wants Murdoch to “bring it on” and test the accuracy of the WSJ story that allegedly uncovered a titillating letter sent to Epstein bearing the president’s name.

Suggesting Murdoch may be too infirm to deliver his deposition in person would be an indignity for the 94-year-old, who was recently seen using a walking stick.

The letter reportedly “contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker”.

It also contained a joking reference that “enigmas never age” and allegedly ended with the words, “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the report said.

Trump has strongly denied having written the letter, the alleged contents of which have been revealed at a particularly sensitive time for the president, who is under relentless pressure from supporters to release files in the government’s possession containing details about Epstein and his associates.

That team Trump is attacking Murdoch’s age probably isn’t surprising. In classic Trump style, he wants to make the attack personal, and suggesting Murdoch may be too infirm to deliver his deposition in person would be an indignity for the 94-year-old, who was recently seen using a walking stick.

Props: Murdoch and Larry Ellison sit in the Oval Office with Trump in February.Credit: AP

Meanwhile, Trump must feel embarrassed and betrayed that the media mogul who appeared with him in the Oval Office in February and whom he referred to as “an amazing guy”, “in a class by himself” and a “legend of publishing and business” has turned into a presidential attack dog.

It was during February’s piece of theatre that Murdoch and tech billionaire Larry Ellison sat in the background appearing to be uncomfortable stage props – expensive furniture adorning Trump’s announcement of the creation of a US sovereign fund.

Murdoch, who has kept his own counsel on Trump despite his private feelings of derision, has clearly decided now is an opportune time to change lanes.

Whether he is protecting his legacy and feels supporting Trump would put him on the wrong side of history, or whether he believed that the commercial outcome of exposing these allegations against Trump would outweigh the bucket of pig swill Trump would throw at him, is unclear.

It is probably both.

It’s no accident that the billionaire media mogul has moved against Trump at a time when the MAGA base, which is a key component of the viewership of Murdoch’s Fox News, is in rebellion.

What is clear is that Murdoch has thrown a grenade whose ripple effect will be felt by his son and successor Lachlan, who is now ostensibly running the empire.

According to Trump’s legal filing, he spoke with Murdoch before publication and received assurances that Murdoch would “take care of it”.

And so he did – just not in the way that Trump had imagined.

For the legions of people critical of Murdoch and Trump, this is a contest of evil vs eviller.

This cohort doesn’t want a declared winner – it wants to see the carnage.

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