Seth Meyers on the Maga schism over the Epstein files: ‘This meltdown has been years in the making'
A growing rift between hardcore Maga supporters and Donald Trump exploded into a full name-calling fight on Wednesday, when Trump told his base to stop asking about convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. 'I think Trump is really starting to crack under all this Epstein drama,' said Seth Meyers on Late Night.
'For years, the Maga right has willingly engaged in a mass delusion where New York real estate mogul and tabloid celebrity Donald Trump, the man who partied with and publicly praised Jeffrey Epstein, would be the savior who sweeps into power and exposes massive sex trafficking conspiracy involving the most powerful people on earth,' he explained.
Numerous prominent conspiracy theorists believed Trump would expose the government's information on Epstein, even though he once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' who enjoyed 'younger women'. At one point, Epstein called Trump his 'closest friend for the past 10 years' – 'which is remarkable for two reasons', said Meyers. 'One, it's the world's most notorious sex trafficker saying he was close friends with the president, and two, no one stays friends with Trump for 10 years. I mean, the closest people in his life maybe last 6 months before he turns on them.'
So Trump is trying to make the Epstein cloud go away, and 'it's backfiring badly', said Meyers. On Wednesday, Trump tried a new strategy, dismissing the Epstein files as a hoax created by Democrats – 'They were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden administration,' he said.
'Dude, if someone asks if your name is in the Epstein files and you say Obama made up the files, people are going to think your name is in those files,' Meyers responded. 'Because the very easy answer is 'no, of course not, that's ridiculous, I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein!' But Trump can't give that answer, because he's in photographs with Jeffrey Epstein.'
'This meltdown has been years in the making,' Meyers concluded. 'Maga fixated on the Epstein case and created the delusion that Trump would expose the truth, even though Trump himself was a close personal friend of Epstein's. And now they can't reconcile the fake Trump they believed in with the real Trump they're actually getting.'
'I don't know what you all are talking about, but everybody I've talked to is talking about what Donald Trump doesn't want to talk about,' said Stephen Colbert on Wednesday's Late Show.
That would be Jeffrey Epstein, a person Trump has declared to be too boring to talk about. 'He's been dead for a long time,' Trump said outside Air Force One on Tuesday. 'He was never a big factor in terms of life.'
'That sentence was never a big factor in terms of word,' Colbert quipped.
Trump went on: 'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It's pretty boring stuff.'
'He's right, the Epstein saga is a total snoozefest,' Colbert deadpanned. 'I mean, the most powerful man in the world is blocking information about a powerful cabal of the rich, the famous and the royal befriending a con man who regularly flies off on his private plane to his private island to do super illegal sex stuff. Then the con man is arrested and they're afraid he's going to name names but before he can, he mysteriously dies right after being taken off a suicide watch in a federal prison during the administration of a guy who is blocking the release of the information. Boooooooring.'
'Sex cults and murder are famously dull,' he added. 'That's why they call that movie Eyes Wide Shut, because everyone was asleep.'
Nevertheless, in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump dismissed anyone seeking information on Epstein – 'I don't want their support anymore!'
'You can't build a brand on conspiracy theories and then get mad that people are interested in your conspiracy theories,' Colbert retorted.
MAGA won't let up on the Epstein files, and Trump is going full messy bitch on them pic.twitter.com/Ds6RPj4yJr
The Maga schism over Epstein is 'a shocking turn of events for Donald Trump', said Jordan Klepper on the Daily Show. 'His own sycophants are breaking ranks with him and even worse, they are demanding accountability.'
Even Lauren Boebert, one of the most notoriously inflammatory Republicans in Congress, suggested an outside special counsel investigate the handling of the files – though she also proposed it be led by disgraced ex-Congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned last year after a federal investigation into alleged sex trafficking of underage girls. 'You want Matt Gaetz to investigate underage sex trafficking?' Klepper mused. 'Because it makes sense in a sort of 'game recognize game' way… I can see Matt Gaetz pulling up to R Kelly's house saying 'I'm putting together a team.''
'This special counsel team might've been the last straw, because this morning, Trump absolutely lost it on his supporters,' Klepper said. In a lengthy screed on Truth Social, Trump called Maga supporters interested in Epstein 'weaklings' and said 'I don't want their support anymore'.
'He went full messy bitch,' Klepper laughed. ''If you can't handle me at my sex crimes coverup, you don't deserve me at my alligator concentration camp, you slut.''
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Dear Keir Starmer, stop cosying up to Donald Trump – or he'll drag Britain down with him
Donald Trump's victory in last November's US presidential election presented Keir Starmer, Britain's Labour prime minister, with a choice – and an opportunity. Either cosy up to a man whose obnoxious, hard-right, ultra-nationalist policies are inimical to UK security and foreign policy interests, economic prosperity and democratic values; or risk a rupture with the US, a longstanding but overbearing ally, and seize the moment to redefine Britain's place in the world, primarily through reintegration in Europe. Starmer made the wrong call – and Britain has paid a heavy price ever since. The cost to national dignity and the public purse will be on painful show this weekend as Trump, pursued by the Epstein scandal and angry protesters, makes an expensively policed, ostensibly private visit to his golf courses in Scotland. On Monday, the prime minister will travel north to kiss the ring. More humiliations loom. In September, Trump will return for an unprecedented second state visit, at Starmer's unctuous behest. At that point, the full, embarrassing extent of Britain's thraldom will be there for all the world to see. Let's be clear. Trump is no friend of Britain's and is, in key respects, a dangerous foe. Efforts to curry favour with this narcissist will ultimately prove futile. Trump always reneges. His unedifying career is littered with broken promises and relationships, personal and political. His only loyalty is to himself. Right now, this wannabe dictator is busy making America not greater but weaker, poorer, less influential and more disliked. Don't let him drag Britain down, too. It's not too late to make the break. US leadership of the western democracies used to be taken for granted. Now it's a problem. Politicians in both Britain's main parties have difficulty accepting this shift. As so often, public opinion is ahead of them. 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Scotsman
30 minutes ago
- Scotsman
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The Guardian
37 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘People have seen through him and he's not welcome': Scotland tees up for Trump visit
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Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Across Scotland, on the west coast, the residents of Turnberry are facing road diversions, security checkpoints and a swelling police presence, with transit vehicles trundling along the country roads. There is metal fencing around Trump's luxury resort and lines of police in hi-vis jackets blocking the beach, where the late Janey Godley regularly stood to greet him with her infamous handwritten protest sign: 'Trump is a cunt.' In March, Trump described members of a pro-Palestine group accused of vandalising the Turnberry course by painting the grass with the words 'Gaza is not 4 sale' as 'terrorists'. On Friday, some local people were exercised about the 'partial lockdown' they found themselves in. One pensioner questioned why the UK government was contributing to expensive policing for what is a private visit while limiting his generation's winter fuel payments. But others mentioned the employment Trump had brought to the area. Menie's new course is dedicated to the president's late mother, Mary Anne Trump, who was raised on the Isle of Lewis, further up the west coast, before immigrating to the US. In Lewis's main town of Stornoway, Sarah Venus has rehung the protest banner she was ordered by the local council to remove in May. It reads: 'Shame on you Donald John,' a maternal-style admonishment prompted by his treatment of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a White House press conference in February. The banner will now go on a tour of the island around private homes, as Trump's visit continues into next week. 'This time the protests will be a bit different because of the broader context,' says Venus. 'People are beginning to connect the dots and realise this is a transnational struggle against fascism. It's not just happening over there in the US and maybe there's an opportunity to be vigilant and head it off over here.'
