If ever a politician shared in a debacle of his own making, it is Donald Trump. The man who managed to escape time after time, has landed in a quagmire and may not walk away unscathed.
In the past, Trump’s followers turned a blind eye just as he predicted they would if he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. They overlooked his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying federal records to cover up paying off a porn star. They gave him a pass when boxes of stolen records were found stacked in his bathroom. They disregarded his earlier boasts of sexual assault, ignored his having to pay off those he defrauded at Trump University. Instead they lined up to enrich him buying Trump hats, T-shirts, sneakers, mugs, Bibles and perfume.
What has proven difficult to sidestep are the Jeffrey Epstein files, details about Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes, a supposed “client list” and conjecture surrounding the death of the disgraced financier. While on the campaign trail in 2024, Trump vowed to release the Epstein files. His call was echoed by others: J. D. Vance and Don Trump Jr. as well as “manosphere” podcasters like Joe Rogan, Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino.
Trump had a lengthy history with Jeffrey Epstein. He once told New York Magazine he’d known Epstein for 15 years, calling him “a terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.” Trump said they both shared a love for beautiful women; in Epstein’s case “some of them on the younger side.” For his part, Epstein claimed he and Trump were “best friends for ten years.”
Despite his campaign promises, Trump recently has damned supporters’ clamor for release of the Epstein files as “bullshit” and called the existence of a so-called client list “a hoax.” He blames others whom he claims “made up” a client list, citing James Comey, Hillary Clinton and former presidents Obama and Biden.
Trump accuses the Democrats of manufacturing the disclosure scandal. He ignores that Pam Bondi, his own attorney general, had claimed in February that the “client list” was sitting on her desk. However, in recent weeks, Bondi back tracked saying there had been no client list and there wasn’t any additional intelligence.
Meanwhile, Trump is lashing out at supporters seeking more transparency. He has called them “weaklings” and says he no longer wants their support. It is a curious tactic for a term-limited president who nevertheless needs their votes to enact his programs.
After leading a House vote rejecting calls for the files’ release, Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to break with Trump saying Bondi needed to explain her statements saying the Department of Justice would not make any more disclosures. In response, Trump has directed Bondi to release parts of grand jury testimony in the Epstein sex trafficking case. Such a release, even if deemed legal, would be time consuming.
In the midst of the growing split between loyal Trumpists and MAGA factions convinced of some sort of coverup, the Wall Street Journal on Friday released a letter allegedly sent from Donald Trump to Epstein. Discovered among a trove of bawdy 50th birthday letters sent the financier in 2003, Trump’s supposed wish was for “a happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Framing the typewritten message was the drawing of a nude woman with a recognizable signature scrawled across her genital region.
On Truth Social, Trump branded publication of the letter “false, malicious and defamatory.” He now is suing the Wall Street Journal and News Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion for publishing the letter.
Fallout over the Epstein scandal continues to gather momentum. It was only just starting back in May when Elon Musk broke with Trump. Since then, Musk has flooded his social media with posts trolling the administration’s handling of the Epstein files. In several recent postings he openly accused the president of a cover-up. Obviously, Musk has no qualms about squeezing Trump’s pressure point. There’s an odd poetic justice to finding Trump engulfed in a scandal he’s been unable to shake.
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Of course Trump is lashing out. Anything for a distraction. The grand jury release, even if it goes forward, would have nothing to do with the so-called client list. It would be the crimes for which Epstein was charged, already well known. Meanwhile, the suicide of poor Virginia Giuffre, his victim at age 15, is met with a shrug. Rich and powerful older men passed this juvenile girl around like a joint at a party. Nothing to mourn there. The world quickly moves on.
Trump’s “pressure point”? Where would that be? In this Charenton asylum of social media, where is our Marat to oppose the corrupt and decadent Trump-Epstein aristocracy? Where is the de Sade of Democracy to chronicle the parade of fools and prophets?