MAGA Was Always Going To End Up Here

Ghislaine Maxwell: New MAGA Hero

MAGA’s new First Couple?

Most script writers would have avoided a plot twist like this. It’s too absurd.

But the show runners of the Game of Trump knew that it was inevitable: At some point a MAGA soaked in cultishness and conspiracism would end up with Ghislaine Maxwell. As Victim. Truth-teller. Savior. Key Master to unlock the Secrets of the Cabal.

MAGA influencers have already begun the long embrace, as Trump teases out a pardon, and his personal lawyer DOJ grants her immunity.

“Maybe she wants immunity, maybe she wants some sort of protection, I don’t know,” MAGA spittlelick Charlie Kirk said on his show last week. “But it definitely is something that is worthy of praise, and worthy of our encouragement.”

Backward reels reality, because the reality is known: Ghislaine Maxwell is the manipulative monster behind Jeffrey Epstein’s victimization of hundreds of young women. She is a chronic liar, who was convicted on five charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. The judge who sentenced her to 20 years in prison described her crimes as “heinous and predatory.”¹

And yet, notes Colby Hall: “If you’re keeping score at home: a convicted sex trafficker may soon receive DOJ immunity brokered by a Trump ally, in exchange for testimony that conveniently exonerates Trump and implicates Democrats — all while Trumpworld tries to paint her as the real victim.”²

For MAGA, this winter was always coming. It has been groomed for this moment.

We can see where this is going:

After Ghislaine Maxwell Interview, Concerns Mount Over Possibility of a Trump Pardon - The New York Times

Ms. Maxwell has made it clear she wants her 20-year sentence thrown out or reduced or a pardon. President Trump, asked whether he would consider pardoning her, said, “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about.” He made the remarks before he headed off to Scotland, wishing her well….

The department offered Ms. Maxwell conditional immunity to discuss the case….

Trump’s MAGA allies zero in on Ghislaine Maxwell as Epstein furor persists

Many MAGA luminaries who say Maxwell is vital to cracking the case would consider leniency, so long as she identifies the child rapists they say have gone unpunished, arming authorities with the evidence needed to convict them.

MAGA Inches Closer to a Ghislaine Maxwell Alliance

NOT EVEN A MONTH AGO, the idea of Trump supporters openly embracing a convicted child sex trafficker would have been unimaginable. Yet the idea that Maxwell is innocent, or at least was railroaded by the same overzealous prosecutors Trump claims pursued him, is unquestionably starting to circulate in right-wing media. And it’s owed, in part, to Trump’s abrupt pivot into arguing that the entire case is fundamentally flawed.

Of course, we ought to be shocked at this Orwellian and Dada-esque plot twist. The rational world continues to struggle with our Escher-like political reality.

But we’ve been heading in this direction for a very long time haven’t we? In the distant mists of time, conservatives claimed to care about things like character, personal morality, and the rule of law. Until five minutes ago recently, they cared about sex-trafficking, pedophilia, and the sexual corruption of elites. And they would settle for nothing less than the full release of the Epstein Files.

But a decade spent bending reality has consequences for the human mind. Marinating in conspiracy theories twists perceptions. When everything is a false flag nothing is; or maybe everything is. Sedition becomes patriotism; lies become deep truths. Truth is expendable, along with decency. The world’s most egregious lecher becomes an avatar of Christian morality.

And then there is the cult. If you invest deeply enough in the Great Man, inevitably one comes to the conclusion that He Can Do No Wrong. And Must Be Defended. No Matter What.

Pussy grabbing? Sex abuse? Insurrection? Perjury? Corruption? At each step — with every compromise of principles; every concession to cruelty and indecency — MAGA got closer to this moment. The qualms and moral defenses fell long ago.

If embracing a toxic international sex trafficker is now necessary to protect the cult, MAGA is ready. (The voters may be another matter.)

ICYMI: A week of commentary

Sunday

Garry Kasparov: Autocracy in America

Tuesday

Trump's Frantic Flop Sweat

Wednesday

Here Comes Trump's Ghislaine Play

Thursday

Trump Is In The Epstein Files. Of Course.

Friday

Who Knew It Would Be "South Park"?

Sunday dogs

That’s a streak of sunlight on Auggie…. (not a muzzle!)

1. Reminder: Ghislaine Maxwell: The harrowing testimony that brought her down

The prosecution's opening statement to the jury began with 11 words that sounded like the start of a children's book.

"I want to tell you about a young girl named Jane."

But for these women this was no fairytale. It was a nightmare and it was very real. How real became apparent the following day when Jane took the stand.

She testified that Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein approached her when she was 14 years old at a summer arts camp in 1994.

Over the next two years, she said she was abused about every other week with Maxwell sometimes taking part. This was one of her key exchanges with prosecutors:

Q. What was Maxwell's demeanour like during these incidents?

A. I would say that it seemed very casual, like it was - like it was very normal, like it was not a big deal.

“The idea that she was merely manipulated by Epstein — who died under suspicious circumstances in federal custody in 2019 — is not just revisionist, it’s grotesque, writes Colby Hall.

“Maxwell wasn’t some clueless socialite; she was his chief recruiter, a key player in a global trafficking ring that destroyed countless lives. To reframe her as a pawn now, simply because it may serve Donald Trump’s legal or political ambitions, is both offensive and dangerous.

And yet here we are.

2.