Donald Trump has just begun a legal war on Rupert Murdoch. He is notorious even more for targeting two Wall Street Journal reporters—reporters libel and slander. The lawsuit stems from claims that Trump sent a sexually explicit note to former Miami mogul Jeffrey Epstein. It further accuses him of placing a sketch of a naked woman in that very correspondence. Throughout the past week, Trump has vehemently disputed the authenticity of the letter. He refers to the report as “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
The lawsuit seeks a near-unimaginable $10 billion in damages and attorneys’ fees. It goes after Murdoch, the reporters, News Corporation’s top executive Robert Thomson, and other related corporate actors. Trump has vehemently rebutted the assertions by the Wall Street Journal. He adamantly denies as totally false the claim that he sent a sexually suggestive birthday card to Epstein in 2003.
I never sent that letter. It is fraudulent. It’s all a big witch hunt,” Trump wrote, taking to Twitter to show his outrage at the charges.
The firestorm of the Epstein controversy is raising new questions about Trump’s administration. This attention primarily centers around the administration’s management of records surrounding the now disgraced financier. Faced with this growing pressure, here’s what Trump did. Specifically, he ordered the US Department of Justice to petition a federal court to unseal the grand jury transcripts that were used during Epstein’s case. This change heralds the long overdue move toward transparency, a move Trump rightfully sought in the face of a story that has captured the country’s imagination.
Moreover, Trump’s administration has drawn ire for its confusing, disorganized tariffs on multiple international products. In less than a week, a massive 25% tariff will land on Japan’s imports. This goes into effect only if we fail to reach a preliminary trade deal by August 1.
On takeaways from his administration’s foreign policy accomplishments, lauding his administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “fantastic.” He mentioned that ten more hostages would soon be released from Gaza, stating, “We got most of the hostages back. We’re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly.”
At last week’s White House summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter. The letter nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize at the time. This announcement follows weeks of discussion focused on the potential for creating a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, underscoring Trump’s growing influence on international diplomacy.
These Trump allegations have already created a firestorm of responses from GOP and Democratic political figures, including former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. She called Trump the victim of a “treasonous conspiracy” to subvert his 2016 presidential election win. Gabbard stated, “The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.”