Trump's Epstein problem is the biggest crisis of his presidency

Telegraph

2 days ago

Donald Trump has a simple three-pronged approach for dealing with crises: deny, deflect, distract.
Cry fake news, then blame Democrats — and if all else fails order a huge shift in policy that sends the media chasing a new shiny object.
None of that is working to defuse the furore among his supporters about the mysteries hidden in the so-called 'Epstein files', the supposed client list buried in pages and pages of documents from the investigation into the paedophile activities of the late financier.
On Friday the president was battling fresh insult: the accusation that he had penned a bawdy Birthday message and lewd drawing to Epstein in 2003.
It has mired Mr Trump in the deepest crisis of his presidency.
His supporters believe that the documents are being held under lock and key to protect a powerful cabal of abusers, and nothing will persuade them otherwise.
Even Laura Loomer, the Right-wing provocateur and Trump loyalist who has done more than anyone to keep the story in the headlines, sounds worried about what she helped unleash.
'When I say this could consume his presidency, I mean that if a special counsel isn't appointed it will be all consuming, like 'Russiagate' was,' she said.
Ms Loomer set out how an independent prosecutor could be the best way to sift through the evidence and draw a line under the matter before it becomes a defining narrative.
She said: 'They need to find a way to pivot internally. That doesn't mean ignoring it. It just means put it in someone else's control so that we can move on.'
For her, the culprit is not Mr Trump. He did not campaign on a manifesto pledge to release the documents, she says, but made the offer in an interview.
Instead she blames Pam Bondi, Mr Trump's attorney general, (whom she nicknames 'Pam Blondi) for apparently confirming the existence of a 'client list'.
Was she trying to mislead the public or was she lazy, and had not actually read the files before commenting on them?
So far Mr Trump has stood by Ms Bondi. In a show of support, she appeared with Mr Trump in the presidential box at the Fifa Club World Cup final on Sunday.
On Thursday, Mr Trump tried a different tack, asking a court to release grand jury testimony from the Epstein case.
'This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!' he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The flaw in this approach became immediately obvious as Democrats licked their lips and quickly launched a counter-attack.
Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat, pointed out that those documents would only relate to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
'What about videos, photographs and other recordings?' he asked, clearly delighting in the Maga-world disarray.
However, the latest embarrassing twist in the story might finally offer Mr Trump a way to unite his fractious base.
His lifeline comes in the form of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, the paper who claimed that Mr Trump contributed a lewd birthday letter to a compilation for Epstein in 2003.
It was three years before the billionaire financier was arrested for prostitution-related offences but the alleged message – ending with 'may every day be another wonderful secret' – is a terrible look today.
But now some of Maga world's loudest voices have a new villain.
Steve Bannon, who has warned repeatedly that Mr Trump has to listen to his base on Esptein, picked up the subject with gusto.
'The Wall Street Journal is supposed to be so revered,' he told viewers of his WarRoom show on Friday. 'This was a political operative deep state intelligence services hit job using the Wall Street Journal as its platform.'
So, are the 'Epstein files' being covered up by the deep state, the media — or the White House? Trump-world will now be forced to pick a side. In the meantime, the president can only hope they pick his.