Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein: Nothing To See, Amirite?
Complete and total mystery
Gather around my friends, and let us ponder one of the unfathomable mysteries of our times. Why would the Trump Administration crush the fondest hopes of MAGA by deep-sixing the Jeffrey Epstein case?
We can’t possibly say, but let’s speculate a bit, shall we?
Happy Wednesday.
It is hard to overstate the Right’s years-long fevered obsession with the Epstein files and the alleged coverup of the sex trafficking scandal by the Deep State. As the Dispatch’s Nick Cattogio noted yesterday, Epstein’s client list was “the moral pillar” upon which Trump’s “authoritarian pretensions rested. “
“If Trump won, the thousands of predators who supposedly populate our elite institutions would be exposed, discredited, arrested, and imprisoned. The many moral compromises Trumpists have made over the past 10 years on behalf of their leader and the movement he inspired would be vindicated. It would be a sort of political Judgment Day, with the wicked cast into the lake of fire and the virtuous left to inherit the Earth.
”Now here’s the prophet, speaking through his DOJ, to say there will be no Judgment Day. Disappointments don’t get much greater than that.”
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ICYMI: I discussed the Trump-Epstein mystery with Jim Acosta yesterday.
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Let’s rewind the clock a bit, and recall how certain well-known figures latched onto the cover-up conspiracy:
During the campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly promised that if he was elected he would most definitely release the Epstein files — and expose all of the malefactors, cretins, perverts, and Democrats therein.
In February: Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that the Epstein file was “sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump.”
Then came the much-hyped Release of the Binders.
At the White House on Feb. 27 three conservative influencers proudly held aloft binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase I.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed a bold new era, with the government “commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators.”
Yet the files revealed nothing new. A month later, FBI agents were reported to be “working around the clock, some in 12-hour overnight shifts” to get further evidence ready for release.
The tease continued: In March, Bondi told Fox Business she received a “truckload” of unreleased documents related to Epstein.
In May, she insisted that FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of the wealthy financier “with children or child porn.”
Musk later backed off, but we did take his advice and marked “this post for the future.”
A month later: Team Trump — Bondi, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino — suddenly concluded that Epstein had no clients, didn’t blackmail anyone, and definitely killed himself. MAGA is incandescent with rage and disappointment.1 And the leopards are furiously eating faces. (“Elon Musk Accuses Steve Bannon of Being in Epstein Files in X Post to Roger Stone.”)
For his part, Donald Trump really, really doesn’t want to talk about Epstein ever again. When a reporter brought him up at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, an indignant Trump barked: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? That is unbelievable.”2
For much of MAGA this gaslighting is more than merely a disappointment; it wreaks of a coverup. But let us ponder this riddle: Why would Trump &Co. quash this most favored of fever dreams?
It is, indeed (as Winston Churchill might say), a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. And we cannot possible imagine why Trump would not want to release the files that detailed Jeffrey Epstein’s associates:
So, I guess it will remain an inscrutable mystery. (And, no, the Trump base wouldn’t have cared anyway.)
Nota bene
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok launches into antisemitic rant amid updates - The Washington Post
A chatbot created by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company launched into an antisemitic tirade Tuesday and invoked Adolf Hitler, days after Musk touted updates that would reduce its reliance on mainstream media sources and train it on information that is “politically incorrect.”
Exit take: Why does this sort of thing always seem to happen to a nice guy like Elon, who is absolutely, positively not a Nazi, despite the salutes and endorsements of neo-Nazis?
Wednesday dogs
Moses and Auggie don’t get it either.
MTG has some questions:
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine that year for a story headlined “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.” “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
The bottomless hypocrisy of the MAGA base.
Virginia Giuffre, after years of exploitation by Epstein and his pathetic legion, committed suicide earlier this year...and MAGA was utterly indifferent.
It was never about the children...
Looks like they are more pics of Trump with Epstein than there were of Hunter’s pecker on his laptop.