A President Sues – Trump’s Campaign Against Murdoch, Dow Jones, and the Complaint

It is a document that at first glance appears official – sober, almost bureaucratic in its language. But those who look more closely will recognize a tectonic shift: Donald J. Trump, 45th and 47th President of the United States, appears as plaintiff before the federal court in Miami – not represented by a powerful law firm, but “pro se,” on his own behalf. The opponent: Dow Jones & Company, News Corporation, Keith Rupert Murdoch personally. The accusation: libel, defamation, assault.

One might be tempted to interpret this act as another episode in the media chess game between Trump and the fourth estate – as a continuation of that endless struggle for interpretive authority, where news is not reported but judged, and truth is not discovered but declared. But this case, filed on July 18, 2025 under docket number 1:25-cv-23229 in the Southern District of Florida, is more than that. It is a show of force. And a revelation. Trump is not suing a media outlet – he is suing a structure. The empire that Rupert Murdoch has built over decades, with the Wall Street Journal as a fiscally conservative flagship, FOX News as a mouthpiece for rage, and countless editorial desks as echoes of his strategic interests. The fact that Trump now explicitly cites “libel” and “assault” is no coincidence. It is a political maneuver through legal means. The fact that Trump is representing himself, without a lawyer, without a firm – may initially seem like vanity. But in truth, it is a calculated act of staging: a president who stands alone against the media. A man who goes to battle against an entire network with nothing but his voice, his fury – and a blue form from the CM/ECF system of the federal judiciary.

What makes this lawsuit so remarkable is not only the political weight of its author, but the explosive nature of its details. The complaint, which is in our possession, comprises 18 pages and quotes verbatim those passages from the disputed article that Trump classifies as “per se” defamatory: it is about an alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein in which Trump’s name was supposedly placed beneath the thickly drawn breasts of a naked woman – in a spot meant to suggest pubic hair. Trump speaks of “malicious intent” and “deliberate misrepresentation.” According to the complaint, the authors of the article, Khadeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo, never attached the alleged drawing, provided no evidence of its authenticity, and also claimed that Trump himself had written and signed the text – all presented “as fact,” without proof. Trump’s legal brief on page 9 is particularly explicit: the real reason for these omissions, it claims, is that no such letter or drawing exists. The defendants allegedly acted deliberately with the aim of “damaging President Trump’s character and integrity and casting him in a false light.” That the president is defending himself in this way against one of the most powerful media groups in the world is not only legally noteworthy – it is also a sign of the escalation of a conflict that has long exceeded the boundaries of journalism.

What follows now is more than a legal proceeding. It is a political drama with an uncertain outcome. Will the court even allow the case to proceed? Will Murdoch agree to a settlement – or respond with a counteroffensive? And is all of this part of a larger campaign in which Trump, during the 2026 election year, once again turns his old enemies into the projection screen of a divided nation? The phrase “Happy Birthday – and we’ll see each other again soon,” allegedly written in the letter, now sounds – two decades later – like an echo reverberating through the courtroom. What remains is an image. Not a photo, but a moment: a former president who firmly places his name beneath a lawsuit. Against those who once made him – and then abandoned him. Against a system he himself has nourished, feared, and despised. Against Rupert Murdoch, the king of headlines. It is a duel on an open stage. With words as weapons. And truth as the prize.