[Photo: Rupert Murdoch (by Eva Rinaldi) and Donald Trump (by Michael Vadon) / Wikimedia Commons]

The ties that bind the most powerful media mogul in the world to the leader of the free world just keep getting stronger. Or, more precisely, we keep learning just how strong they are. The question is where that leaves the rest of the world when they’re done divvying it up.

They are Rupert Murdoch - founder of corporate news media giants 21st Century Fox and the News Corporation - and President Trump.

The Financial Times reported the latest example of their closeness last week: that Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka was a trustee of the nearly $300 million fortune Mr. Murdoch set aside for the 2 children he had with his 3rd wife, Wendi, who arranged the trusteeship. Ms. Trump gave up that oversight role in December, before her father’s inauguration but well after Election Day.

That means the whole time that Mr. Murdoch’s highly influential news organizations were covering Mr. Trump’s campaign and transition, their executive chairman was entangled in a financial arrangement of the most personal sort — tied to his children’s financial (very) well being - along with the president’s daughter.

Referring to her only as the president’s “daughter” fails to capture her true role. She is Mr. Trump’s most trusted confidante. And she is married to a key presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, who, as it happens, is so close with Mr. Murdoch that he even helped Mr. Murdoch set up his bachelor pad after his last divorce, The New Yorker reported.

The latest news about the Murdoch-Trump axis is acutely problematic for the leadership at The WSJournal - owned by News Corp. - as it seeks to quell a rebellion by a group of staff members who believe that the paper has held them back from more aggressively covering Mr. Trump, they suspect, under pressure from Mr. Murdoch.

But the relationship between the president and Mr. Murdoch has implications well beyond The Journal, given the global breadth of Mr. Murdoch’s media holdings, his history of putting them to use for political leaders who then help him with his own business needs and Mr. Trump’s own reactivity to the news media.

How it all affects the rest of us depends on how powerfully Mr. Murdoch’s news media properties swing behind the new presidential agenda. One way to guess is by looking at The NYPost, where Mr. Murdoch’s conservative-populist fingerprints are most easily dusted into view. It’s the first paper Trump reads each morning.

And from the White House, Mr. Trump regularly indicates that he believes no major news media properties have been more helpful, and less problematic, to his cause than Mr. Murdoch’s.

Fox News provides powerful backing for Mr. Trump, starting with its morning show “Fox & Friends” and ending with its 10 p.m. program, “Hannity,” though its day is interspersed with straight news from journalists like Shepard Smith, Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge. And, with the loss of the 9 p.m. host Megyn Kelly, the network’s prime time has become that much friendlier for Mr. Trump.

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