Analysis: As the Maga world focuses on the Epstein case, Trump seeks to focus on anything else

NZ Herald

4 days ago

They included a woman snatching an approaching snake from the grass, a car sliding under a truck barrelling along a highway, and no fewer than four people doing tricks on motorcycles and jet skis.
Today, Gabbard added another item to the list - announcing the release of hundreds of thousands of documents related to the 1968 assassination of the Rev Martin Luther King jnr.
The through-line connecting those disparate posts?
They have nothing to do with the political problem that has dogged Trump for weeks - the 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein.
As the controversy over Epstein, the wealthy financier and sex offender, has refused to dissipate, Trump and those closest to him have tried repeatedly to divert attention to other subjects, with limited success.
Republican strategist Alex Conant said the Epstein episode has called into question Trump's ability to evade electoral consequences of actions that would kneecap other politicians.
'Nobody turns the page better than Donald Trump,' Conant said.
'His entire first term was constantly changing narratives. We lost track of all the dramas because he's always adding a new one to distract from the previous ones.
'This is different because he's in a real fight with his base. Normally his base helps change the topic by latching on to a new outrage.
'But now he's in a fight with his base, and the Democrats and the mainstream media are more than happy to fan those flames,' Conant said.
The fight started because many of Trump's loyal supporters were angered that the Administration was refusing to follow through on promises to release more details about the Epstein case.
The politically connected multimillionaire, who died in 2019, has been the subject of years of elaborate conspiracy theories, many of them fanned by people who now hold senior positions in Trump's Administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019 and died in jail later that year while awaiting trial.
His death was ruled a suicide, though some prominent Trump supporters questioned that and alleged, without evidence, that he had been killed to protect rich and powerful friends who may have also been involved in his abuse of young girls.
During an interview on Fox News in March, Attorney-General Pam Bondi said she would be releasing 'truckloads' of new information about Epstein.
Instead, the Justice Department released a memo this month saying it had conducted an 'exhaustive review' and found no evidence of an 'incriminating 'client list'' or anything else that warranted public release.
That set off an apoplectic response from some in Trump's base, which the Administration has spent two weeks trying to tamp down.
Trump has questioned why his supporters had not moved on to more important topics, even suggesting that continued interest in the conspiracy theories benefitted Democrats.
'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bull****,' hook, line, and sinker,' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last week.
'They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.'
That and other efforts to change the subject have been so far unsuccessful, experts and observers say.
Instead, new attention has focused on Trump's own well-documented friendship with Epstein, especially after a Wall Street Journal article about a salacious drawing Trump allegedly contributed to a 50th birthday present for the financier in 2003.
Trump denied the story and has sued the Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch.
By insisting that he is the victim of an unfair media attack, he has rallied some of his most prominent supporters around him. But polls show that large majorities of the public believe the Government is hiding facts about the Epstein case.
As a result, the President whose ascent has been linked to a litany of unproven claims now finds his political power threatened by a conspiracy theory he can't shake.
'Donald Trump is the one who cast himself as the elite who doesn't side with the elites. He's the elite who sides with the people. He's going to drain the swamp,' said Russell Muirhead, a professor of democracy and politics at Dartmouth College and a Democratic state legislator from New Hampshire.
'But when he says, 'There's nothing to look at here. We're not going to release what the Justice Department has and forget about that list' … it looks like he's just another elite, corrupt like all the rest, and that impression will remain, to some extent, regardless of whether this particular story is at the top of people's attention.'
The President has attempted to make some concessions on the issue, including an announcement last week shortly after the Wall Street Journal published its story that he had directed the Justice Department to petition the courts to release grand jury testimony related to Epstein.
Today, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected claims that Trump is paying a political price for his handling of the Epstein case, noting that he enjoys high approval ratings among Republicans.
'The President is the leader and the creator of the Make America Great Again movement. It's his baby that he made and he knows what his supporters want,' she said during an impromptu news conference outside the White House, where nearly a quarter of the questions were about Epstein.
'It's transparency, and he has given them that on all accounts when it comes to everything his Administration has done.'
Democrats, seeing an opening, have demanded that Epstein records be released and have blasted Republicans' at times conflicting stances on the issue.
How quickly the public may move on from paying attention to the Epstein case might be determined to a greater degree by organic movement in the news cycle than any effort Trump makes, said Conant.
'It's hard to keep a story like this alive unless there's fresh oxygen. Part of why it's become such a big story is because Trump himself keeps talking about it,' he said.
'It's not a coincidence this is happening in the dog days of summer. There's no big legislative fight. There's no national crisis. Fast-forward two months and we're going to be facing a government shutdown. Time is on the President's side here.'