\n<\/p>\n
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump doesn\u2019t want you to read this article.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let it go to your head, and I won\u2019t let it go to mine; we\u2019re not special. He doesn\u2019t want anyone reading anything about Jeffrey Epstein, or his own relationship with the late sex offender. And yet his intensive efforts to change the subject to something\u2014anything\u2014else seem to bring only more scrutiny.<\/p>\n
This evening, CNN reported, a group of top administration officials, including the vice president, attorney general, FBI director, and White House chief of staff, had been planning to gather to discuss whether to release the recording of an interview between Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and an Epstein associate, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Then, this afternoon, Reuters reported the meeting had been canceled, with Vice President J. D. Vance\u2019s spokesperson denying that it had ever even been planned. Yesterday, Republicans in the House subpoenaed the Justice Department for some records related to Epstein.<\/p>\n
As the Epstein story\u2019s lock on headlines enters its second month, the president has employed three main tactics to try to dislodge it. First, he has ordered his supporters to stop talking about Epstein. \u201cTheir new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this \u2018bullshit,\u2019 hook, line, and sinker,\u201d he wrote, part of a long and anguished Truth Social post on July 16. This has been somewhat effective in certain quarters: In the days after Trump\u2019s pleas, Fox News aired less coverage of the story.<\/p>\n
Trying to stifle coverage this way has flaws. Much of the interest in Epstein originated in MAGA media itself, so claiming that these supporters fell for a hoax is dodgy\u2014especially when the attorney general and the FBI director were among the foremost merchants of innuendo. And it almost goes without saying that screaming at people not to pay attention to a topic will only make them suspect there\u2019s something to see.<\/p>\n
Some Trump-aligned outlets may be willing to take his lead, but other media organizations are not. A press that might have treated the Epstein story as either old news or somewhat prurient just a few months ago is now eager to find new information about it. Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter who doggedly pursued the story, is the most desired guest on the podcast circuit. Just yesterday, The New York Times published photos of unclear provenance showing the inside of Epstein\u2019s Manhattan townhouse.<\/p>\n
Second, Trump has tried to change the subject, whether that\u2019s attempting to breathe new life into his claims of a \u201cRussia hoax,\u201d threatening to federalize the District of Columbia, or taking a walk on the White House roof. Distraction has long been an effective tactic for Trump, but it\u2019s also a familiar one. Trump\u2019s efforts have produced an amusing dynamic where no matter what he does, many people treat it as an attempt to distract from Epstein, which only points back to Epstein. Trump also keeps stepping on his own ploys. When the president announced the return of the Presidential Fitness Test last week, he invited the Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor to join him. But Taylor is a sex offender, having pleaded guilty in connection with paying a 16-year-old to have sex with him. This was not only a strange invitation on its own; it was also a reminder about Trump\u2019s former friend Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking of girls.<\/p>\n
Third, the Trump administration and its GOP allies have tried to provide at least some information to the public, in the hope that it will sate appetites. Frequently, these moves have just whetted them. The Justice Department released what it said was \u201craw\u201d footage from the jail where Epstein died, only for Wired to report that the tape was, in fact, spliced. (Attorney General Pam Bondi attributed the missing footage to a quirk of the security-camera system, though government sources who spoke to CBS News disputed that explanation.) Blanche\u2019s interview with Maxwell is at least ostensibly an attempt to find new information, though it lends itself to further conspiracy theories about backroom agreements. This is especially true given Maxwell\u2019s unexplained move to a minimum-security prison shortly after the interview, as well as Trump\u2019s refusal to rule out pardoning her. House Speaker Mike Johnson has called for \u201cfull transparency\u201d about Epstein, yet he also adjourned the House rather than hold a vote on releasing files related to the case. The mystery of the reported planned meeting scheduled for tonight is more fuel for intrigue.<\/p>\n
When Trump himself has spoken out recently, he has brought only more attention to the matter, to borrow his phrase. The president was evidently aware of Epstein\u2019s sexual proclivities\u2014\u201cIt is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,\u201d he told New York magazine in 2002\u2014but has said that he didn\u2019t know about Epstein\u2019s criminal activity. For years, reports indicated that Trump had fallen out with Epstein, a longtime friend, over a real-estate matter. Last week, however, Trump suggested that their clash came after Epstein \u201cstole\u201d employees from Mar-a-Lago\u2014possibly including Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide in April. This drew understandable outrage from Giuffre\u2019s family but also raised questions about what Trump might have known about Epstein\u2019s trafficking.<\/p>\n
And when The Wall Street Journal reported on a letter the president had allegedly written to Epstein, Trump denied writing the letter but also insisted that he\u2019d never made drawings\u2014which elicited plenty of examples of past doodles, weakening his excuse. His splashy defamation lawsuit and demand to promptly depose the Journal\u2019s owner, Rupert Murdoch, fanned the flames. (The paper says it stands by its reporting.)<\/p>\n
Yesterday, I wrote about how Trump talks about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In that case, Trump\u2019s heated denials fed a belief among many of his critics that he must be hiding something. But the juiciest rumors did not prove true; the worst of the scandal had already been made public. Perhaps the same is true of Epstein: We already know that Trump was friends with him, and we already know that Trump was seemingly aware of his interest in young women. If Trump isn\u2019t hiding anything, though, he\u2019s not doing a good job of convincing the public of that.<\/p>\n
Related:<\/p>\n
Here are three new stories from The Atlantic<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n Today\u2019s News<\/strong><\/p>\n President Donald Trump announced that he will double tariffs on Indian exports to the United States to 50 percent by late August, citing India\u2019s continued purchase of Russian oil. The move aims to pressure Russia over the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Five soldiers were shot at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield, in Georgia. The suspect is in custody, and the shooting is under investigation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Evening Read<\/strong><\/p>\n Illustration by E S Kibele Yarman*<\/p>\n Enough With the Mom Guilt Already<\/p>\n By Maytal Eyal<\/p>\n As I inch closer to motherhood and all of the unknowns that come with it, I sometimes feel as if my entire future is suspended in midair: How might my personality shift? What will my child be like? How will my marriage change? In the midst of that uncertainty, therapy culture tells moms, You can ensure that your kid will grow up to be happy and healthy if \u2026 and then provides a guidebook of tips to read and details to obsess over. In a country where mothers receive so little structural support\u2014where community has eroded, maternity leave is minimal, and child-care costs can be astronomical\u2014the promise that parents alone can conjure all of the stability their child might need can feel like a warm hug. But really, that promise can be a trap.<\/p>\n To be clear, I\u2019m not arguing that moms shouldn\u2019t work on their own mental health, or that they shouldn\u2019t think deeply about their approach to parenting. Rather, I worry that therapy culture prompts mothers to gaze obsessively, unhealthily inward, and deflects attention from the external forces (cultural, economic, political) that are actually the source of so much anxiety.<\/p>\n Read the full article.<\/p>\n More From The Atlantic<\/em><\/p>\n Culture Break<\/p>\n Illustration by Raven Jiang<\/p>\n Read. Elaine Castillo\u2019s second novel, Moderation, captures the numerous ways that screens help people hide from themselves, Sarah Rose Etter writes.<\/p>\n Watch. In 2020, Sophie Gilbert recommended 20 undersung crime shows to binge-watch.<\/p>\n Play our daily crossword.<\/p>\n Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.<\/p>\n When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting <\/em>The Atlantic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Donald Trump doesn\u2019t want you to read this article. Don\u2019t let it go to your head, and I won\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[3703,167,431,81,6930],"class_list":{"0":"post-14414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-epstein","9":"tag-making","10":"tag-saga","11":"tag-trump","12":"tag-worse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14414","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=14414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n