A conspiracy theory that Donald Trump can't control
Whatever could he mean? The president has, naturally, said the words in the WSJ story did not sound like him and rang up the newspaper's editor Emma Tucker and proprietor Rupert Murdoch to threaten them with lawsuits. For a brief moment, Maga closed ranks, dismissing a story from the mainstream media and supporting Trump's denials. The Vice President emerged from his recent silence on the Epstein saga to call the story 'complete and utter bullshit'. But this is a risky strategy. Remember that Trump initially said the Access Hollywood tapes in 2016 did not sound like him before having to admit that he was in fact the culprit.
Like then, you should expect this story to run on for a while yet. If there are more revelations, it makes sense for Tucker to spread them over a few days, turning the screws on the administration and humiliating those who questioned their reporting. The story already seems to have prompted Trump to tell the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to publish any 'pertinent' files from the 2019 Grand Jury indictment of Epstein for sex trafficking. (These files are thought to contain only a fraction of the government's information on Epstein, and could still yet be kept secret by a court.)
The Epstein story quickly ran away from the president, inflaming his supporters online and making him look like a hypocrite for promising to release the case files and then telling everyone to move on. His position is contradictory: he says the idea that there is a conspiracy is a hoax, but also that the Democrats — including the Clintons, James Comey and Obama — were behind keeping the files secret. And then he chose to release those very files. Is it a hoax, a Democratic conspiracy or simply a tragic case whose details will confirm the official story?
The question now is what will satisfy the Maga base. Trump has long pushed conspiracy theories so that his voters see him as their only champion in the fight against a corrupt, paedophilic elite. That strategy is now coming back to consume him. This is by far the most dangerous scandal he has faced this term because it might erode the trust his base has in their dear leader. It is a test of whether that trust is actually blind faith.
[See more: Donald Trump can't escape Jeffrey Epstein]
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe
Related
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
UN investigator says US sanctions over her criticism of Israel will seriously impact her life
An independent U.N. investigator and outspoken critic of Israel's policies in Gaza says that the sanctions recently imposed on her by the Trump administration will have serious impacts on her life and work. Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is a member of a group of experts chosen by the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. She is tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has been vocal about what she has described as the 'genocide' by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the United States, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied that accusation. Washington has decried what it called a 'campaign of political and economic warfare' against the U.S. and Israel, and earlier this month imposed sanctions on Albanese, following an unsuccessful U.S. pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post. 'It's very serious to be on the list of the people sanctioned by the U.S.,' Albanese told The Associated Press in Rome on Tuesday, adding that individuals sanctioned by the U.S. cannot have financial interactions or credit cards with any American bank. When used in 'a political way," she said the sanctions 'are harmful, dangerous.' 'My daughter is American. I've been living in the U.S. and I have some assets there. So of course, it's going to harm me,' Albanese said. 'What can I do? I did everything I did in good faith, and knowing that, my commitment to justice is more important than personal interests.' The sanctions have not dissuaded Albanese from her work — or her viewpoints — and in July, she published a new report, focused on what she defines as 'Israel's genocidal economy' in Palestinian territories. 'There's an entire ecosystem that has allowed Israel's occupation to thrive. And then it has also morphed into an economy of genocide,' she said. In the conclusion of the report, Albanese calls for sanctions against Israel and prosecution of 'architects, executors and profiteers of this genocide.' Albanese noted a recent shift in perceptions in Europe and around the world following an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. 'It's shocking," she said. "I don't think that there are words left to describe what's happening to the Palestinian people.' The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians but says more than half the dead are women and children. Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, the United Nations says hunger is rampant after a lengthy Israeli blockade on food entering the territory and medical care is extremely limited.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump 'seriously considering' granting Diddy a pardon as disgraced mogul awaits sentencing in jail
Donald Trump is 'seriously considering' a pardon for Sean ' Diddy ' Combs as the disgraced rap mogul awaits his sentencing in a Brooklyn jail. As the judge prepares his punishment for the former producer over prostitution charges, a source told Deadline that Trump has been mulling the reprieve. Diddy has been acquitted on three of his most serious charges. Insiders told the outlet that the idea had advanced from 'just another Trump weave to an actionable event.' The 55-year-old mogul was found not-guilty of sex-trafficking and racketeering earlier this month, but was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs is set to receive his sentencing on October 3 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A presidential pardon has been talked of since the beginning of Combs' trial, and Trump even indicated in May that he was open to the idea. The President said, when asked on the matter in the Oval Office, that 'nobody's asked but I know people are thinking about it.' 'I know they're thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking,' he added. 'First of all, I'd look at what's happening. And I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage,' Trump continued. 'I haven't seen him, I haven't spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics he sort of, that relationship busted up from what I read. I don't know. He didn't tell me that, but I'd read some nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden.' 'So, I don't know. I would certainly look at the facts. if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me it wouldn't have any impact,' he concluded. Attorney John Koufos, who recently met with Trump's pardon 'tsar' Alice Marie Johnson and pardon attorney Ed Martin, told the Daily Mail elements of the case fit with Trump's push against 'overcriminalization' and 'weaponization' in charging. Trump was himself charged with a racketeering conspiracy in the Georgia election interference case, and he has long railed against what he calls weaponization of the criminal justice system. Analysts watching the Diddy case have questioned whether the government overcharged him, and Koufos wondered how the defendant could be engaging in a RICO conspiracy by themselves. 'Had he been convicted of a RICO [charge], you'd be looking at something different. The fact that he was convicted of things that it seems that he pretty obviously did probably mitigates against a grant of clemency,' he said, nothing there was 'nothing particularly sympathetic' about the defendant. The avenue for a potential pardon appears to run through Johnson and Martin, who previously served as Trump's interim top US Attorney in the District of Columbia. Trump has long championed his signing of the First Step Act, which reauthorized Second Chance legislation meant to boost successful reentry by former prisoners into the population. He has also been open to pardoning political allies, as he did when pardoning former Republican Rep. Michael Grimm and former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojavech. Blagojevich promptly called him a 'great effing guy.' But rapper 50 Cent, Curtis James, is a longtime Diddy rival who has been occasionally posting about the case online – even while saying he would urge Trump not to pardon Diddy. 50 Cent posted on Instagram: 'He said some really bad things about Trump, it's not ok. Im gonna reach out so he knows how I feel about this guy,' Vulture reported. 'Donald doesn't take well to disrespect, and doesn't forget who chooses to go against him,' he wrote in another. 'while working tirelessly to make America great again there is no room for distraction. He would consider pardoning anyone who was being mistreated not Puffy Daddy.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Tariffs: Trump says India might face up to 25% duties if deal not agreed
India could face tariffs as high as 25% if it fails to finalise a trade deal with the US this week, President Donald Trump has said. "Yeah, I think so," he told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether Delhi would face higher tariffs in the absence of an agreement. The US has set a 1 August deadline for India and several other countries to either reach a trade agreement or face increased and American officials have been negotiating a trade deal for the past few months, but officials have alternated between sounding optimistic and cautious about when it will be announced. When asked about what he expected from a potential deal with India, Trump said: "We're going to see. India has been a good friend, but India has charged basically more tariffs than almost any other country". "But now I'm in charge, and you just can't do that," he BBC has reached out to India's commerce ministry for a are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries. The US president has repeatedly taken aim at India's high tariffs, branding it a "tariff king" and a "big abuser" of trade ties. Trump has not yet sent a letter to India setting a new tariff rate - as he has with more than a dozen other trading partners. Back in April, Trump had announced tariffs of up to 27% on Indian goods, which was later then, both sides have been racing to negotiate an agreement, with officials sometimes sounding positive and at other times, measured."We continue to speak with our Indian counterparts. We've always had very constructive discussions with them," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said earlier this also acknowledged that although he had earlier said a deal with India might be "imminent", it needed to be understood that Delhi's trade policy has been "protectionist for a very long time" and has been "premised on strongly protecting their domestic market". Greer added that Trump has been focused on securing deals that substantially open other markets to the and dairy are among the key sticking points for both years, Washington has pushed for greater access to India's farm sector, seeing it as a major untapped market. But India has fiercely protected it, citing food security, livelihoods and the interests of millions of small week, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told CNBC that the agriculture sector is sensitive for India and that it will make sure that farmers' interests are "well protected". Goyal also told news agencies that India remains "optimistic" about striking a deal with Washington to Reuters, he said that India was making "fantastic progress" in talks with the US and that he hoped they were able to "conclude a very consequential partnership". Until recently, the US was India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $190bn in 2024. Trump and Modi have set a target to more than double this figure to $ has already reduced tariffs on a range of goods - including Bourbon whiskey and motorcycles - but the US continues to run a $45bn (£33bn) trade deficit with India, which Trump is keen to BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
