This Week’s Trump Outrages, Epstein Edition

Six months into his second term, Donald Trump is adamant that the media and the public should be focused on his achievements. Instead, he’s bedeviled (to the delight of his adversaries) by a MAGA-led revolt over Attorney General Pam Bondi’s assertions that there is no “client list” of important men who participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitation of underage girls and no evidence to counter the official finding that Epstein committed suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

It’s important to observe that Bondi herself previously said that she had a “client list” sitting on her desk — “a truckload of evidence, “thousands of pages,” plus videos. After she changed her story, she said she was referring to the entire Epstein file, not a “client list” and that the videos would harm Epstein’s victims and would never be released.

That did not sit well in the MAGAverse and with right-wing conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer and Alex Jones. Loomer charged that Bondi “is covering up child sex crimes that took place UNDER HER WATCH” when she was attorney general of Florida.

And the public disapproves of Trump & Co.’s performance, as well. Only 13%, according to a CBS News poll, say they’ve been transparent, 69% (including 62% of Republicans) think the government is concealing information on Epstein’s client list and 60% say the same about his death. Only 17% of voters approve of the administration’s handling of the scandal.

Trump and his aides are doing their best to divert attention from Epstein—notably by declaring that Barack Obama is guilty of treason. Treason is a capital offense that the Constitution defines as follows: “Treason against the United States shall consist only of levying war against them or in adhering to them, giving them aid and comfort.” Clearly, even if Obama did what the administration claims—alter intelligence reports on Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favor— it would not constitute treason.

Trump claims the Epstein story is a “hoax” and attention to it is a “witch hunt.” He told reporters “the witch hunt you should be talking about is they caught President Obama.”

He was referring to a report issued by his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, challenging intelligence agency findings that Russia did try to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favor, but failed to change any votes. She said that Obama and senior officials conspired to alter an original report, which she claims that Russia did not attempt to do so. 

Gabbard’s report essentially revisits years of Trump assertions that the intelligence findings were part of a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine his 2016 election victory. A Senate Intelligence Committee review led by Republicans including now Secretary of State Marco Rubio found no reason to question the intelligence community’s findings.

It remains to be seen if Trump’s compliant Justice Department will (in Trump’s words) “go after” Obama and intelligence officials in his administration. Gabbard did send a criminal referral to the Justice Department.

Trump distractions aside, Trump-friendly officials and conspiracyniks for years have kept their followers convinced that important figures, mainly Democrats, were participants in Epstein’s crimes, and arranged for him to be murdered in his jail cell.

Now, however, Trump is under suspicion of covering up the scandal. During his 2024 campaign he agreed he’d release the Epstein files, which Bondi has now blocked, presumably under orders from him.

On Thursday, the administration tried to tamp down Epsteinmania by telling New York Times reporters that hundreds of FBI agents were diverted from their regular duties searching through 100,000 pages of Epstein-related documents, but found no “client list” and confirmed that Epstein committed suicide. But the administration still did not make the “full disclosure” of documents MAGA-ites and other conspiracists have been demanding.

No law enforcement agency has ever accused Trump of Epstein-related crimes, but newspapers have reviewed his fifteen-year friendship with Epstein, dating back to the 1990s, which included frequent partying and hitting on young women.

Two dozen women have accused Trump of unwelcome advances, fondling, groping and forcible kissing—all of which he denies. But given his serial marital infidelity and the Access Hollywood tapes in which he bragged that, as a “star,” women would allow him to “do anything” including grab their genitals, suspicion is bound to arise about what he may have done along with Epstein in the past.

Also, Trump told New York Magazine in 2002 that Epstein was a “terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It’s even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” The Wall Street Journal asserted on July 17 that Trump sent Epstein a 50th birthday card in 2003 featuring a drawing of a naked woman and the line “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump has sued the Journal along with Rupert Murdoch, its owner, and the reporters who wrote the story for $20 billion, charging willful defamation.

Pedophilia and its coverup is the kind of scandal that ordinary citizens can easily understand, complicating Trump’s woes. If he has nothing to hide, Trump would fully release the Epstein files, as the public demands, not just request Bondi to release “pertinent grand jury testimony” about the case, which would contain limited information and which, in any case, a court would not allow.

That would be complicated. When Epstein was asked in 2010 whether he and Trump ever socialized in the presence of females under-18 years old, he said “Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today I’ll assert my 5th, 6th and 14th amendment rights.”

House Democrats (and a few Republicans) have introduced bills calling for full disclosure of the files, but Speaker Mike Johnson put the House into an early summer recess to avoid a vote.

Meantime, six months into his second term, Trump and his subordinates are congratulating themselves on several accomplishments, which we’ll critically examine in Trump Outrage Watches to come. At the top of Trump’s list was executing his promised “massive deportation” of undocumented immigrants and reducing border crossings by 90%.

A CBS poll July 20 showed that voters said immigration was the top issue causing them to vote for Trump, even ahead of inflation. Approval of Trump’s proposed “mass deportation” policy was at 59% in February 2025.

But the ruthless way the policy has been carried out has soured the public: now 56% oppose it and only 44% approve. What’s more, a Gallup poll shows that 78% now think most undocumented immigrants should have a pathway toward citizenship and not be deported.       

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill provides funding for a huge expansion of immigration enforcement personnel and facilities, making ICE the federal government’s highest-funded law enforcement agency and detention facilities for 100,000 persons awaiting deportation. The expansion is designed to meet Trump’s goal of 1 million deportations a year.

Once supported by 60% of voters, expansion of immigration enforcement personnel is now opposed by 56% and expansion of deportation infrastructure is opposed by 58%.

As Trump originally sold it, his program was supposed to prioritize violent criminals for arrest, detention and deportation, but top officials are actually prioritizing numbers, with agencies required to meet quotas, first 3,000 a day, then 5,000. Only 8 percent of 100,000 persons deported so far  have been convicted of violent offenses. Many of the rest have convictions, if any, for traffic infractions or violation of immigration laws.

Despite the turnaround in public opinion they’ve caused, Trump and his top immigration officials—Deportation Czar Tom Homan, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—are not likely to reconsider their hostility toward undocumented immigrants.

Or their methods—roundup raids at worksites, homes, and courthouses; arrests—sometimes violent— on the basis of skin color, inability to speak English and tattoos resembling gang markings; detentions in sub-standard facilities, deportations conducted despite court orders against them, frequent denials of due process, and deportation to dangerous countries that  the deportees have no connection to.

If Trump & Co. do continue their past practices, expect more protests, resistance from citizens protecting well-regarded undocumented immigrants and increased public opposition to Trump’s deportation plans.