Trump, Murdoch, Epstein and MAGA: Bannon predicts firestorm, but it’s not clear who will get burnt

Steve Bannon says it’s going to be “a long, hot summer” in a season of American political recriminations. And, he tells me, Australians have a vital interest at stake in ways that we hadn’t even realised.

Bannon, Donald Trump’s original White House strategist, is one of the generals of the MAGA army. His War Room podcast is a propaganda mainstay of the movement. And in recent weeks, he’d been leading his army in pressuring Trump to release all the files on arch-paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Credit: Dionne Gain

This was occurring even as the US president was trying to dismiss the matter. It was “boring”, said Trump, a “hoax” that only “some stupid Republicans” cared about. There would be no files released, there had been no conspiracy. Case closed.

But Trump’s base was not about to be brushed off so easily. Trump and some of his top officials had coached the MAGA movement for years into the belief that Epstein was the heart of darkness, the paedophile pimp for the corrupt elites, including top Democrats.

Why was Trump suddenly so dismissive? Elon Musk claimed that Trump was on Epstein’s secret client list. Could it be so? The president’s followers confronted a crisis of faith.

US Attorney-General Pam Bondi said in February that she had Epstein’s client list “on my desk right now”. But this month, she said that there was no client list. Should they believe her then, or should they believe her now?

Trump and his future wife, Melania, with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000.Credit: Getty Images

The army was confused and divided. Two weeks ago, Bannon said that it was so serious the Republicans would “lose 10 per cent of the MAGA movement”, costing them 40 seats in the House of Representatives at next year’s midterm elections, and their majority. Worse, he said, “we’re gonna lose the president”.

But that changed, dramatically, on Thursday, US time. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, published the contents of a letter that Trump allegedly had written to Epstein in 2003. It was suggestive, even “bawdy”, according to the WSJ.

Most damaging to Trump was the letter’s closing line on the occasion of Epstein’s 50th: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The president phoned Murdoch in an effort to kill the story, but the Journal published nevertheless. Trump denounced it as fake and sued Murdoch for a minimum claim of $US10 billion for defamation. It would be “an interesting experience” to get Murdoch into the witness box, said the president.

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon: “All of MAGA will rally around because of the attack on President Trump.”Credit: AP

But, to Bannon, it was not a problem. It was an opportunity. “The real enemy has revealed itself,” he exclaimed. Immediately, he rallied the MAGA movement in defence of Trump. And in pursuit of Murdoch: “This was a kill shot by Murdoch,” Bannon tells me in a Monday phone call, meaning a political hit rather than a kinetic one. “All of MAGA will rally around because of the attack on President Trump,” he predicted.

“This is going to blow up the Murdoch empire in the US. People will turn on him. Already, the streaming services have a bigger audience than Fox News” – the Murdoch cable TV channel which created the far-right-wing ecosystem to incubate Trump’s first presidential candidacy.

“Their audience will turn against Murdoch for trying to smear the president of the US. Besides, President Trump is suing him for $10 billion. The Achilles’ heel of the Murdoch empire is Murdoch.”

Trump and Murdoch have had ructions over the years, but the two men have maintained a cordial relationship. Indeed, Trump entertained Murdoch in his box at the FIFA Club World Cup final five days before the WSJ story ran.

But why would Murdoch unleash a political “kill shot” against the president only six months into a four-year term? Bannon has two explanations – one immediate and one larger.

Cordial relationship: Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch.Credit: Bloomberg

The immediate reason, he says, was to deflect attention from an imminent news event. On Friday, US time, the day after the WSJ’s story ran, Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was due to release an investigation into the claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election. She duly did.

Gabbard sought to discredit the US intelligence community’s finding that Vladimir Putin had meddled to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign and to help Trump’s. Gabbard accused Obama administration officials of “treasonous conspiracy” in confecting the claims of Russian interference and referred documents to the Justice Department for possible investigation.

The WSJ ran the story of the Trump letter “to thwart the Tulsi Gabbard files”, says Bannon.

But why would Murdoch and his newspaper want to do that? Because Murdoch is in league with the so-called “deep state”, the career officers of the US intelligence agencies. “It’s the deep state, with their media partners, led by Murdoch, that’s out to destroy Trump,” Bannon told The Washington Post.

Murdoch and the intelligence services want to foment suspicions that Trump was involved with Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, he says. “Epstein is tied to the intelligence services.” I ask Bannon outright whether, if there is a list of Epstein clients, he thinks Trump might be on it. “Zero chance,” he replies.

“The No.1 thing we have to do now is to take down the deep state,” he tells me. “Who governs us?” He cites the two attempts to assassinate Trump last year. “The FBI hasn’t released all its files,” he says, implying possible complicity.

“Who governs this country? The intelligence agencies, the CIA, Mossad, the FBI, the Five Eyes?” The Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing arrangement that sprang up in World War II between five allies – the United States, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“Who governs your country?” he poses to me, hinting that a conspiracy of the five countries’ intelligence agencies might secretly control Australia as well as the US. “This is of vital importance to Australia, too. Do elections mean anything? This is bigger than Watergate.” He has no answers, but many questions.

Bannon gave Trump a way out of his MAGA crisis – he urged the president to order Bondi to ask the courts to release any “pertinent” Epstein testimony held under seal – and the president took it.

Bannon says, approvingly, that “it’s a dramatic first step – it’s going to be a firestorm”. But he demands that Trump go further by appointing a special counsel to investigate the Epstein case. So the pressure remains on the president to restore faith with his base.

But Bannon is confident that MAGA will emerge intact. Besides, there are yet more enemies to be confronted: “The biggest schism is not the Epstein case, it’s with the tech bros.”

But that’s a conspiracy for another day.

Peter Hartcher is the international editor.

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