The key sign Trump is losing the plot over Epstein

Sydney Morning Herald

3 days ago

Time was when Americans had to venture to movie theatres to watch their summer blockbusters. This year actually marks the 50th anniversary of the Steven Spielberg epic Jaws, the smash hit that created this seasonal genre. Now, though, it is Washington rather than the waters off Amity Island that produces the most compelling drama. It can be watched from the comfort of your sofa by flicking between the cable news channels and by taking occasional glances at Donald Trump's own media outlet, Truth Social, which regularly produces the most outlandish plot developments.
In 1975, it was a man-eating great white giant that lurked in the deep. In 2025, for President Trump, it is his old friend and party pal, the convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, who haunts him from the grave. Trump, who usually revels in being the executive producer of his own presidency, has lost control of the storyline. Though his tenure is not in peril, you can almost hear John Williams' anxiety-inducing soundtrack in the background.
The head of the MAGA movement is trying to subdue the biggest revolt yet from his MAGA base. A billionaire whose political rise was fuelled by popularising a racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the USA now looks to many of his supporters like the conspirator. The self-proclaimed slayer of the deep state stands accused of becoming its mouthpiece. The exposer has become the suppressor.
Trump is flailing. Little over a week ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that he had sent a 'bawdy' letter to mark Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 that featured type-written text framed by his doodle of a naked female body. Rather than draw pubic hair, Trump allegedly scrawled his signature. 'Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,' his greeting allegedly concluded.
This week, the Murdoch-owned Journal published another explosive exclusive claiming Justice Department officials had reviewed a 'truckload' of Epstein-related documents and seen Trump's name 'multiple times'. The president, the paper reported, was informed of this by his Attorney-General, Pam Bondi, back in May, although being named in these documents is not necessarily a sign of wrongdoing.
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The timeline is important because, at the start of July, in a two-page memo, the Trump Justice Department announced an end to its Epstein investigation, having purportedly found no 'client list' of men to whom young women had been sex-trafficked. That 'nothing to see here' announcement sparked the MAGA revolt.
Trump, incensed by their display of disloyalty and independent-mindedness, called his followers 'stupid' and 'foolish' for buying into a 'bullshit' Epstein 'hoax'. In his first, feeble stab at a deflection strategy, he claimed it had been fabricated by Obama, Joe Biden and 'Radical Left Democrats'.
To make sense of this MAGA meltdown, it helps to excavate the roots of Trumpism. From the moment the New York tycoon descended that golden escalator, he appealed to Americans angry at being deceived over the war in Iraq and betrayed by the failure to prosecute Wall Street executives deemed responsible for the 2008 financial crash. To a cohort who hated the idea of a Black presidency, Trump's birtherism was instantly seductive.