A look at President Trump's lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch, the founder and controlling owner of Fox News who also owns many newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal. The Journal last week reported that Trump signed a crude 50th birthday card for the late Jeffrey Epstein. NPR has not independently verified that, and the president denies it. In fact, he sued The Wall Street Journal and its owners. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik joins us now. David, good morning.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK. So what's at the core of Trump's complaint here?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, he says he's been defamed and libeled. He's sued down in Florida by the fact that he sent this birthday card, which was, in a sense - he has denied sending. He says, I don't draw things. Other people have brought forward drawings that he's done. He said, those aren't my words. Other people have shown at times he has used these words. But, you know, it's sort of a leering birthday card, but it's a - there's a question. I've talked to, you know, various legal observers about what the harm is to his reputation here. It was sent to perhaps the nation's most famous person who's been convicted of sex offenses, but he's been accused of sending a birthday card about two decades ago, if a slightly leering one.

INSKEEP: And he was already known to have been a friend of Jeffrey Epstein in the years before he was arrested and so forth. Trump himself is on the record admitting that. Yeah.

FOLKENFLIK: He's also been accused by, you know, dozens of women - and things he's denied - but nonetheless accused by dozens of women of things like sexual misconduct, sexual assault. Like, the idea of sending a birthday card defaming his character is a real question. Also, you know, he is not only a public figure, which raises the bar under the law of what he has to prove his burden to show to be able to prevail in a civil case, but he is the most powerful public figure in the country. And therefore, that - you know, that makes it all the more difficult for him to prevail. And yet, you know, as a private citizen, he has sued CBS, ABC, Meta...

INSKEEP: Yeah.

FOLKENFLIK: ...Twitter and gotten settlements out of those, at least in recent past.

INSKEEP: OK. So I get the broad strategy of suing the media, but this seems like an unusual case because Trump and Rupert Murdoch had been allies, and it would seem, in some ways, they still are allied. The Wall Street Journal broke this story that Trump didn't like. Murdoch seems to have disregarded Trump's personal appeal to kill the story. But at the same time, Fox News, which reaches far more people, seems to be doing far less. Just a minute ago, I was looking up at TV monitors in our studios here. CNN is wall-to-wall Jeffrey Epstein. MSNBC is covering - or was a minute ago covering Jeffrey Epstein. Fox News seems to be doing less. So why would Trump sue an ally?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, right. And Fox News was happy to do all kinds of things on Epstein while Trump and his supporters were whipping that up as a story, right? You know, they've both benefited from this alliance. Fox has - core viewers have often overlapped with the president's core supporters. He's suing in part because he's sued the press repeatedly, and he's trying to throw a brushback pitch. By doing this to Rupert Murdoch, by doing this to The Wall Street Journal, he's essentially saying, look, even those outfits that you may think I'm sympathetic to or have a deal with, they're on notice, too.

You know, this alliance served Murdoch really well. If you think back in the first term, the Trump administration waved through the sale of most of Fox's Hollywood holdings to Disney without a hiccup. That was an enormous media consolidation that could've been reviewed far more closely. In this way, he's saying to folks who are allied to him, to folks who are not, look, I will come after you. It doesn't matter whether you've been allied with me or not.

You know, the Journal has incredible lawyers. Murdoch likes a good story. I assume he'll defend this. But to be honest, some people who used to work for him at fairly senior levels tell me, you know, when it comes down to it, both of them are transactional and practical. It wouldn't totally surprise them to see a settlement.

INSKEEP: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, thanks for the insights - really appreciate it.

FOLKENFLIK: You bet.

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