Trump’s utter botching of the Epstein case brought quick backlash from some of the president’s biggest supporters. But that failure is nothing new.
By Josh Moon
As it turns out, those Jeffrey Epstein files were a lot like Donald Trump’s infrastructure week: A lot of talk, zero action.
In truth, the fizzle and flame out of the Epstein case this week is the perfect microcosm of the Trump presidency. Hasn’t everything been like this when you really think about it?
Trump makes a grand promise while attacking his opponents and then embarrassingly fails to deliver on the promise while performing equally as bad, or worse, than the person he criticized. Rinse and repeat.
Remember when the tariffs were going to work? Remember when he was going to fix COVID? Remember when the economy was going to be so much better than Biden’s? Remember when he was going to lower prices immediately? Remember when he was going to stop that Russian-Ukrainian war on Day One? Remember when he was going to cut taxes for rich people without cutting Medicaid? Remember when he was going to end all wars? Remember when … well, you get the idea.
But the MAGA cult keeps falling for it, like Charlie Brown and that danged football.
It’s all part of the Trump presidential playbook: Wave a flag. Pretend to pray. Make a BS promise. Talk like a cheesy movie tough guy. Grift. Fail bigly in every way. Claim victory. Repeat.
The Epstein failure is nothing new for Trump and his cult, except it was. Or, at least, the reaction to it was.
For the first time, a whole bunch of the Trump true believers—the really-out-there weirdos who buy the Trump sneakers and trading cards—were publicly angered by one of Trump’s actions. And they went after not only Trump but also some of his closest and most famous allies.
Of course, anyone who watched that clip from back in June 2024 of Trump hedging on releasing the Epstein files could not have been shocked by this week’s surprise announcement by Trump’s DOJ that there was no Epstein client list and that all available evidence supports the fact that Epstein killed himself in prison. To back up the latter part, the DOJ released surveillance footage from inside the jail, showing the door to Epstein’s cell.
But crafty people who know how clocks work noticed that a full minute was missing.
Oops.
Then, something that almost never happens did happen: Rightwingers remembered what rightwing politicians said a few weeks and months earlier.
Like that time that Attorney General Pam Bondi went on TV and said the Epstein client list was on her desk just waiting to be released.
Double oops.
At a press conference this week, a reporter attempted to ask Bondi about the discrepancy, but Trump intervened. In a scene that we could have once only imagined in an outrageous sitcom or sketch comedy show, Trump asked, incredulously: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?”
MAGA world came unglued (not that they were ever glued that tightly to begin with) over the whole ordeal. Some of the loudest, dumbest, and most annoying voices among the earth-is-flat-and-Dems-control-the-weather crowd have been screeching for Bondi to resign. And they want Kash Patel and Dan Bongino out of the FBI, too.
All of them, they say, are now involved in a cover-up.
And while I poke (deserved) fun at them all, I have to also admit that they sorta have a point. I mean, if there’s no client list and there’s no other info out there, why was Epstein in jail, and why is his confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison? Why was Trump (allegedly) discussing a pardon for Maxwell at one point?
But mostly: Why does Trump look so utterly shaken anytime anyone mentions Epstein and the files related to his disgusting activities?
Don’t take this lib’s word for it. Go back and watch the tapes. Anytime Epstein’s name comes up and anyone starts talking about specifics, Trump turns into a little kid trying to say he knows nothing about the broken window.
Maybe it has something to do with all those photos of him and Epstein together, or the flight logs with Trump’s name on them, or the call logs, or the relationship he clearly had with Maxwell.
Guess we’ll never know. But we do know a couple of things for sure.
First, no matter where you fall on the conspiracy theorist spectrum, I think we can all agree that something just ain’t right about this Epstein situation. Starting with that shady deal he got from the Justice Department back in 2018, which violated victims’ rights laws, all the way through to the prison guards falsifying records, his cellmate being removed the night before his “suicide,” and the missing minute on that video. Something stinks.
The second thing we should all know by now is that the way the Epstein situation was handled is Trump’s MO. Forever and always. Big promises, no deliveries. Ask the vendors he’s stiffed. Ask the casino workers who he left unemployed. Ask the victims of COVID who believed it was just like the flu. Ask the Americans who are about to lose their health care so billionaires can write off their private jets.
Some of us have been trying to tell y’all that Trump is a self-serving grifter. Glad y’all now realize it. Better late than never.
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Josh Moon
Josh Moon is an investigative reporter and featured columnist at the Alabama Political Reporter with years of political reporting experience in Alabama. You can email him at jmoon@alreporter.com or follow him on Twitter.