A marriage of convenience that paid huge political and financial dividends has ruptured in spectacular fashion after Rupert Murdoch’s media outlets branded Donald Trump a “loser” and the former US president hit back with a blistering statement accusing the media mogul of going “all in” for his rival Ron DeSantis.

The abrupt break-up between Murdoch and Trump came after the Republican party’s disappointing performance in this week’s midterm elections — which many rightwing pundits attributed to the former president — and amounts to an earthquake in the landscape of conservative media and politics.

Using his publications as his stationery, Murdoch moved first. The New York Post’s front page on Thursday featured an oversized  picture of the former president tumbling from a brick wall, an allusion to the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, with the tagline: “Don (who couldn’t build a great wall) had a great fall.”