\n<\/p>\n
As the questions surrounding<\/span> Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s life and death\u2014questions that Donald Trump once helped whip up\u2014tornadoed into their bajillionth news cycle, the president\u2019s team began to privately debate ways to calm the furor: appoint a special counsel to investigate. Call on the courts to unseal documents related to the case. Have Attorney General Pam Bondi hold a news conference. Hold daily<\/em> news conferences on the topic, \u00e0 la Trump\u2019s regular prime-time pandemic appearances.<\/p>\n It dismissed every option. Any decision would ultimately come from Bondi and Trump together\u2014or from Trump alone\u2014and for days, the president was adamant about doing nothing.<\/p>\n Trump was annoyed by the constant questions from reporters\u2014had Bondi told him that his name, in fact, was in the Epstein files? (\u201cNo,\u201d came his response)\u2014and frustrated by his inability to redirect the nation\u2019s attention to what he views as his successes, four White House officials and a close outside adviser told us. But more than that, Trump felt deeply betrayed by his MAGA supporters, who had believed him when he\u2019d intimated that something was nefarious about how the Epstein case has been handled, and who now refused to believe him when he said their suspicions were actually baseless.<\/p>\n He\u2014the president, their leader, the martyr who had endured scandals and prosecution and an assassin\u2019s bullet on their behalf\u2014had repeatedly told them it was time to move on, and that alone should suffice. Why, he groused, would the White House add fuel to the fire, would it play into the media\u2019s narrative?<\/p>\n In particular, Trump has raged against MAGA influencers who, in his estimation, have profited and grown famous off their association with him and his political movement, according to one of the officials and the outside adviser, who is in regular touch with the West Wing. They and others we spoke with did so on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to anger Trump by talking about a subject that has become especially sensitive. Trump told the outside adviser that the \u201cdisloyal\u201d influencers \u201chave forgotten whose name is above the door.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese people cash their paychecks and get their clicks all thanks to him,\u201d the adviser told us. \u201cThe president has bigger fish to fry, and he\u2019s said what he wants: Move on<\/em>. People need to open their ears and listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n But Trump\u2019s haphazard efforts at containment\u2014specifically, his effort to simply bulldoze through this very real scandal\u2014came to an end last night, when The Wall Street Journal<\/em> published an explosive story about a bawdy 50th-birthday letter that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein, which alluded to a shared \u201csecret\u201d and was framed by a drawing of a naked woman\u2019s outline. (Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, and has threatened to sue the paper.) Shortly after the article posted online, Trump wrote on Truth Social that because of \u201cthe ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein,\u201d he has asked Bondi to produce all relevant grand-jury testimony related to the Epstein case. Bondi immediately responded, writing, \u201cPresident Trump\u2014we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.\u201d<\/p>\n The Journal<\/em> story underscored, yet again, the part of the Epstein saga that Trump and his allies most wish would go away: that Trump was one of Epstein\u2019s many famous pals and had a long\u2014and public\u2014friendship with the hard-partying, sex-obsessed financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to two prostitution-related crimes and became a registered sex offender. Chummy photos of the two men, including at Trump\u2019s private Mar-a-Lago Club, abound; from 1993 to 1997, Trump flew on Epstein\u2019s private jets seven times, according to flight logs that emerged at an Epstein-related trial; in a 2002 New York<\/em> magazine profile of Epstein, Trump said he\u2019d known Epstein for 15 years and praised him as a \u201cterrific guy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a lot of fun to be with,\u201d Trump enthused to the magazine. \u201cIt is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.\u201d The two reportedly had a falling-out in 2004 when Epstein bought an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion that Trump wanted.<\/p>\n On Wednesday\u2014after the White House had been alerted that the Journal <\/em>was working on a big story, but at a moment when it still thought it might be able to kill it\u2014Trump took to social media to blast as \u201cpast supporters\u201d Republicans still discussing the Epstein matter. He also tore into them during an Oval Office appearance with the crown prince of Bahrain. The president declared that \u201csome stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans\u201d had fallen for a hoax that he said had been created by the Democrats. The president also privately fumed at House Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s call for \u201ctransparency\u201d\u2014and for Trump\u2019s Justice Department to release more files related to the Epstein case\u2014while White House aides wondered if the apparent split could lead to further Republican defiance on other issues.<\/p>\n Still, before the Journal<\/em> story changed the stakes yet again, Trump did not have plans to make additional calls to MAGA media allies or Republican lawmakers, one of the officials told us; instead, the president believed that his public comments and Truth Social posts were sufficient. (Despite his ire, he did not, for instance, reach out to Johnson or his team.)<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s being tested and doesn\u2019t like it,\u201d the official told us. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Former New York Governor<\/span> Mario Cuomo once observed, \u201cYou campaign in poetry; you govern in prose.\u201d And although the country does sometimes accept politicians who campaign in poetry and govern in prose, it is less willing to countenance those who campaign in conspiracy theory and then govern in a nothing-to-see-here-folks reality.<\/p>\n Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court in 2008 and was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He received a generous (and controversial) plea deal and served a short prison sentence before being released. He was arrested again in August 2019 and accused of sex-trafficking minors, leading some to wonder who else in Epstein\u2019s powerful orbit might have been involved and also face charges. He died a month later. Getting to the bottom of the details surrounding Epstein\u2019s death in jail while awaiting trial\u2014which has been ruled a suicide\u2014and releasing additional information about Epstein\u2019s sexual abuse of young women, and whether other well-known figures were involved, was never a top Trump-campaign promise. Trump answered when asked, but it was not a mainstay of his stump speech, something he regularly read from the teleprompter or riffed about at rallies.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, when Trump retook office, his supporters were eager for a big reveal. The wave began to crest when Bondi, asked in a February Fox News interview if she would release a list of Epstein\u2019s clients, replied, \u201cIt\u2019s sitting on my desk right now to review.\u201d Less than a week later, she did herself no favors when, with much fanfare, she invited MAGA influencers to the White House to receive what she claimed were binders full of the declassified Epstein files, only for the beaming, gleeful sleuths to realize that the most scandalous thing about the binders was just how little information they contained. But a two-page memo that the Department of Justice released last Monday\u2014which, in bureaucratese, offered a version of Trump\u2019s current time-to-move-on mantra\u2014is what finally sent the MAGA wave crashing down on Bondi and the president.<\/p>\n Laura Loomer, a Trump ally and far-right provocateur who called for Bondi to be fired over the memo, told us on Wednesday that she is sensitive to the challenges of separating fact from fiction\u2014but that although not everyone in Epstein\u2019s orbit is inherently guilty, those who are guilty should be revealed. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to say there\u2019s no list,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a difference between people who were caught on video engaged in foul pornography and people who were caught in Jeffery Epstein\u2019s contact list.\u201d Demonizing everyone in Epstein\u2019s purported black book would be like tying her to the misdeeds of everyone saved in her cellphone\u2014\u201cI have 7,000 contacts,\u201d she said\u2014\u201cbut they should release the names of the people involved in the child pornography.\u201d Although Loomer and others have raised questions about video recordings of child sexual abuse collected by investigators, Bondi has said that Epstein downloaded those videos and that they were not records of crimes committed by him or his friends.<\/p>\n Loomer has also publicly called for a special counsel to investigate the Epstein case and release the files. In our conversation, she reiterated that appeal and suggested that having \u201cPam Blondi\u201d\u2014her derisive nickname for the flaxen-haired attorney general\u2014\u201capologize for either deliberately lying or overexaggerating\u201d her claim that the key files sitting on her desk in February would help to mitigate the base\u2019s angst. Still, Loomer acknowledged, a Bondi apology would at this point be but \u201cone step.\u201d \u201cObviously, now this has taken on a life of its own,\u201d she observed.<\/p>\n The Epstein news cycle has also distracted from the accomplishments Trump hopes to showcase\u2014his trade deals, the massive legislative package he just muscled through\u2014and has embroiled his West Wing in a familiar cycle of drama. As the MAGA movement turned not just on Bondi but also on FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, over their handling of the Epstein files, tensions among the three became public. Bongino and Patel seemed to blame Bondi for their reputational hit, and last Friday, Axios<\/em> reported that Bongino had simply refused to show up for work. Trump was upset with Bongino and Patel, and Vice President J. D. Vance was dispatched as a behind-the-scenes peacemaker. (A White House official told us that the president has no plans to fire Bondi, Bongino, or Patel, but noted pointedly that Trump is very <\/em>supportive of Bondi, and merely supportive of the other two.)<\/p>\n What additional information could, and should, be revealed remains genuinely unclear. Questions worthy of further scrutiny were raised by Wired<\/em>\u2019s recent reporting on the footage that the Justice Department released from the lone security camera near Epstein\u2019s jail cell the night before he was found dead; the video\u2019s metadata were shown to have likely been modified, and nearly three full minutes were cut out. But it is also possible that Epstein kept no written log of his crimes, and that whatever has not yet been released is simply to protect Epstein\u2019s victims. (There is also, of course, the competing theory that information is being withheld to protect Trump, or others close to him.)<\/p>\n The White House official told us that the Justice Department did a thorough investigation and that much of what remains unreleased falls into one of these categories: documents that are sealed by courts (though Trump and Bondi\u2019s Thursday appeal may change that), child pornography, and material that could expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n This, perhaps, has been the most<\/span> confusing and upsetting part for Trump: his inability to manage his uber-loyalists and regular allies. Last month, during an unrelated fight with Elon Musk\u2014Trump\u2019s on-again, off-again benefactor and buddy\u2014Musk posted on X, \u201cTime to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.\u201d He later deleted the post, but more recently, as the Epstein controversies resurfaced, he again posted an appeal for further disclosure. \u201cHow can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won\u2019t release the Epstein files?\u201d Musk wrote.<\/p>\n In the run-up to the Journal<\/em> story, Trump personally appealed to Rupert Murdoch, his longtime friend and the paper\u2019s owner, not to run the article. He also appealed to Emma Tucker, the editor in chief of the paper, whose editorial page has long been conservative and generally friendly to Trump (except on the matter of his tariff policy). But again, the limits of his power over normal allies became evident; the president was unsuccessful, and the story ran. But even if he lost the skirmish with the Journal<\/em>, he may have at least briefly regained his purchase in the broader battle.<\/p>\n This morning, Trump posted a long, angry screed attacking the paper and promising to sue the Journal<\/em>, its parent corporation, and Murdoch himself. His base likely still has questions surrounding Epstein, but for now, at least, Trump has redirected them back to the more familiar and comfortable territory of fighting with the media.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is yet another example of FAKE NEWS!\u201d his post concluded, not accidentally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the questions surrounding Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s life and death\u2014questions that Donald Trump once helped whip up\u2014tornadoed into their bajillionth news cycle, the president\u2019s team began to privately debate ways to calm the furor: appoint a special counsel to investigate. Call on the courts to unseal documents related to the case. Have Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[3703,3701,1670,2168],"class_list":{"0":"post-11388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-epstein","9":"tag-houses","10":"tag-strategy","11":"tag-white"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}