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Mint
4 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
Opinion: Can the Jeffrey Epstein saga puncture Trump's balloon?
Over the last decade there have been so many occasions when anyone even with a mild interest in political narrative has thought: wouldn't it be funny if this is the thing that brings US President Donald Trump down. The strange thing about Trump is that it's hard to gauge at any time if he is down or up. His ups have all the aesthetics of downs and his downs have all the convictions of ups. And in this anti-gravity, definitively anti-gravitas Trumpy trumpery-filled decade, you have wondered what would definitively puncture that balloon. Did anyone ever think it might be—even for the briefest time—Jeffrey Epstein? A stream of anti-elitist lava brought Trump to power, the kind of lava that once promised to bring Swiss black money straight to our bank accounts. And as thoughtful commentators have pointed out that same anti-elitist, conspiracy theory loving wave found in the real-life figure of American financier and convicted sex offender Epstein the perfecvillain. And Epstein's last gift to every conspiracy theory loving American nut was a sudden death in prison. Almost his last gift, I should say because the real gift was the certainty that in his diaries would be the name of every last person that the quintessential Trump supporter hated. And now Trump is in the kind of situation that powered really excellent, old-fashioned dramas—the horns of a dilemma. He has to either risk releasing millions of pages of material in which he, Trump, a close friend of Villain #1 is sure to appear, however innocently. Or he continues to not release it, further fuelling the rage of his blood-thirsty fans. I watched a video of a Trump fan asking with seemingly the greatest sincerity, 'why is Trump not releasing the papers? What could be stopping him?" True love. This is what it looks like. Of course, there is a bitter irony in that a man who has been found liable of sexual abuse in court and has been credibly accused of much, much sexual misconduct finds his throne wobbly because of his supporters' fixation on a completely different billionaire. When Trump in the last week or two called his voters stupid and said Epstein is boring, it is almost as if he is saying: what does that old creep have that I don't? He is almost singing that Mika line (from the song Grace Kelly): Why don't you like me, why don't you like me, without making me try? Almost but not quite. I am currently reading Naomi Klein's Doppelganger and that makes me think often about Trump and Epstein. Partly because of the idea of the destabilising twin that animates her book (short version: Naomi Klein, a serious political writer is confused all over the world with her contemporary writer Naomi Wolf, who was also once sincere but has since become…very nutty. This has made Naomi Klein's life and work very difficult. Eventually, she wrote this incredibly complex, very entertaining book about pettiness and big ideas and conspiracy theories). That the evil twin will slowly consume and take over the life of the original seems to be a given in the mythology of the doppelganger. So here was Trump who was close friends with Epstein by all accounts and once recounted their similarities in a now infamous euphemism—that they liked beautiful women. Then his supporters who are aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) if nothing else, made up a whole epic in which Trump was going to cleanse the world of evil sex traffickers who drank the blood of children to stay young. Unfortunately, they picked his double. And Trump, who when he was not in power, only cautiously partook of the bloodlust for the Epstein papers still partook. And because he partook is now finding the guillotine sharpened by his devotees glinting in his peripheral vision. The double rising from the grave. The remarkable thing about Naomi Klein's book is that she writes about the pure irritation of being confused with a conspiracy theory lover all the time as interestingly as she writes about seeing the victory of the evil twin version of ideas. Here is one example among many. When Klein (among others) argued that the whole world could have easily have had free covid vaccination if not for the greed of corporations, her doppelganger argued that governments and other evil cabals are vaccinating us to make us slaves. A similar kind of evil twin version prevails in the fixation on the crimes against children by a dead billionaire and his pals when several live American billionaires and their cabals are committing crimes against the children of the world everyday. And they make their pronouncements about children in poverty, queer children, Palestinian children, immigrant children, black children and girl children everyday. And this does not seem to animate the Epstein diary hunters in the least. And that is what happens when you confuse the messy, thin, barely satisfying feeling of justice in the real world with the rich, mouthfeel of a television climax. Seeing double makes your eyes blur. Nisha Susan is the author of The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook and Other Stories.
Miami Herald
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
The Trump-Epstein circular firing squad is just like an episode of ‘Seinfeld'
The Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has engulfed the Trump administration and MAGA world is like an episode of 'Seinfeld.' Somebody does something stupid and the remainder of the show is about the reactions of a cast of soulless characters who are so without redeeming qualities, you can't root for any of them. Donald Trump's decision not to release whatever is in the Epstein files has paralyzed the most MAGA of conservative media outlets. When I checked earlier today, The Federalist, The Daily Caller and Breitbart were all doing their best to ignore the story dividing Trumpists like never before. It is like the digital outlets are waiting for orders from on high, but the leading voices are a confused cacophony, not the usual Trumpy chorus. Fox News and the Wall Street Journal opinion page are both promoting an op-ed by former Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz that is as confused as this Seinfeldian story about nothing. You see, Dershowitz says there's nothing to see here, Epstein committed suicide and was not murdered, but the jail staff may have helped him. Oh, also there's nothing incriminating about Trump. Suicide is a fraught subject that must be handled delicately in all instances, but I am not so clear on how there can be help from the people who are supposed to be guarding you. I didn't know it was OK for the guards to deliver 'assisted' suicide services normally provided by medical personnel. Wouldn't that be a scandal? Dershowitz blames the fact that you can't see the Justice Department files on court-ordered secrecy, as if suddenly the Trump administration has gotten all Emily Post about following judges' orders. Meanwhile the formerly conservative Drudge Report, enemy of all things Emily Post and still frequented by many on the right who want a dose of the day's tabloid fare, is promoting rumors that a big Trump-Epstein story is about to appear in the pages of either The Washington Post, The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Just as I am writing this, The Wall Street Journal breathlessly published a story marked 'exclusive' that, along with dozens of other people, Trump wrote a bawdy letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday. In this letter, Trump allegedly drew a naughty picture with breasts and pubic hair. Oh, my. The only thing worth being on the front page is that Trump called the Journal's top editor to try to stop the story with a lawsuit threat. So it is no wonder the White House and Trump himself are livid at all this attention with the press secretary blasting people like me who keep covering this 'like it's the biggest story that the American people care about.' For once, Karoline Leavitt appears to be sticking to the facts. Conservative talk radio hosts who I listen to, such as Erick Erickson, report that while their 'very online' listeners are mad as hell, their ideological cousins who have touched grass more recently couldn't care less. If it is not clear already, I am watching the whole kerfuffle and enjoying every minute. If a political movement born of nothing but Trump's grudges, conspiracy theories and self-interest deserves anything, it is to suffer a circular firing squad about Trump holding a grudge against his supporters who still believe a conspiracy theory that is suddenly no longer in Trump's self-interest. This won't be the last time that Trump's imaginary hobgoblins will come back to haunt him. Wait until his handpicked Attorney General Pam Bondi fails to come up with anyone to indict for stealing the 2020 election, as all Trump's supporters have been promised. We'll think back on this week's Epstein blowup as a little family disagreement. If we were watching a 'Seinfeld' episode, this is where Jerry would be told, 'No soup for you,' and we'd all have a good laugh. It isn't so funny when the job prospects of our top law enforcement officers depend on the outcome of a scandal about nothing and the president seems more engaged with the fate of a dead sex trafficker than the real lives of the people he is supposed to govern.
Miami Herald
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Democrats will regret their Epstein files glee
'Bring in the clowns' is a great motto for a circus but a bad one for a political party. I know because I was there when the Republican Party and conservative journalists started inviting in the Trumpy clowns in 2009 at the conservative Washington Times. We all know the result is that they took over the Republican Party. Now that the MAGA wing of the GOP is tearing itself apart over Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision not to release the Epstein sex trafficking files, Democrats are jumping into the debate with both feet, hoping to divide Republicans and put themselves on the right side of the conspiracy theorists who think there are earthshaking revelations hidden in the FBI archives. So far: The Democratic National Committee launched a bot to spread the word. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff launched an attack from the campaign trail calling the Trump administration decision a 'broken promise.' Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, posted: 'Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected? On Tuesday, I'm introducing an amendment to force a vote demanding the FULL Epstein files be released to the public.'Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, wrote: 'Wow, who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?' The Democrats are fueling the fires of conspiracy in an attempt to undermine the Trump administration's decision to tell the apparent truth about the Epstein files. Now that the Trump administration is angering its wackiest fringe. Democrats are welcoming the red-nosed fools with open arms. It is the same dangerous move that conservatives and Republicans made when they embraced Donald Trump's false allegations that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and thus ineligible to be president. At The Washington Times, where I was a senior editor in the opinion section, I watched as my news colleagues covered every factual development that raised any question about the issue, no matter how preposterous, quoting the most extreme Republican conspiracy theorists with a straight face. In the opinion section, we used any excuse to mention Kenya and Obama in the same sentence no matter how ridiculous while telling ourselves that by staying just barely on the side of factual accuracy, we were just having fun with the issue to torture our political opponents. In the copy I was responsible for, mostly outside commentary, I never did it, but I didn't make an issue of it when others played along. I probably wouldn't have won a fight over it, but I didn't try. I regret my role, no matter how minor in fueling Trump's early rise to Republican dominance. I didn't invite the clowns, but I didn't try to push them out either. If Democrats keep going down this road, lending their credibility and amplification to wacko conspiracy theorists on the right, they'll regret building the forces who are destroying our political culture. This won't be the last opportunity for Democrats and their progressive media allies to score political points by doing the wrong thing when hard realities force the Trump administration to abandon its endorsement of fringe thinking. Trump and his administration have made common cause with the purveyors of a number of dubious conspiracy theories, including that Ukraine invited the war with Russia, that the 2020 election was stolen and that vaccines cause disease. As the Trump administration unfolds, reality is going to force Trump to begin to reckon with the facts, and in some cases he might choose to tell the truth, as Bondi did on Epstein. It is already happening with Ukraine, as Trump is allowing more American weapons to get to Ukraine's defenders. It might not be too long before Russia's behavior forces Trump to abandon his embrace of Russia's Vladimir Putin altogether. Just this weekend, Trump tried to use the administration's investigation of the 2020 election as a shield against its Epstein detractors, saying that uncovering 2020 wrongdoing was a much bigger deal than sex trafficking. Since there was no such corruption, the Trump Justice Department is going to have a hard time coming up with indictments to make their case. Eventually, the true believers will notice. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is going to have to make his case that vaccines are a health threat and take action to end their use. Reality is likely to intervene, forcing the Trump administration to back off that stance. Democrats should cheer Trump administration steps to move closer to reality and tell Americans the truth, not embrace the clowns to score political points. Given how conservatives and Republicans have acted in the past, I don't have high hopes that the left will do any better.
Business Insider
19-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Trump Truth Social: Trump Blasts ‘Garbage' Media Titan Murdoch over Epstein Letter
Shares in media group News Corp (NWSA) dropped today after it suffered a Trump tirade. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. In his latest Truth Social post, the President was in a grumpy Trumpy mood railing against the Wall Street Journal and its boss Rupert Murdoch. The Australian mogul got not one, not two, but three tirades. Fake Claims 'I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his 'pile of garbage' newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!' Trump wrote. This post came hot on the heels of another red-faced Trump tantrum. 'The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT' That post came hot on the heels of this diatribe. 'The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued. Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so. The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn't want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly. The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don't even exist. President Trump has already beaten George Stephanopoulos/ABC, 60 Minutes/CBS, and others, and looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal. Filthy Rag It has truly turned out to be a 'Disgusting and Filthy Rag' and, writing defamatory lies like this, shows their desperation to remain relevant. If there were any truth at all on the Epstein Hoax, as it pertains to President Trump, this information would have been revealed by Comey, Brennan, Crooked Hillary, and other Radical Left Lunatics years ago. It certainly would not have sat in a file waiting for 'TRUMP' to have won three Elections. This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS!' Feel-good Fridays are clearly not a thing in President Trump's world. Despite getting a dressing down today, News Corp has performed well since Trump returned to power in January. It is up 9% in the year to date. Is NWSA a Good Stock to Buy Now? On TipRanks, NWSA has a Strong Buy consensus based on 6 Buy ratings. Its highest price target is $45. NWSA stock's consensus price target is $39, implying a 30.22% upside.
Business Insider
17-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Trump Truth Social: ‘Big Beautiful Coal' Helping Trump to Transform America
The President was full of energy today – the traditional fossil fuel variety rather the green stuff – today but it didn't do much to boost oil stocks. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. In his latest Truth Social posting, the President's Trumpy nature was in full flow. Dashboard Delivers Okay, it wasn't quite the President's own words, more a reposting of someone else's fulsome quotes but they certainly seemed to have made the President fluff up his oil slick free feathers. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright: 'President Trump has TRANSFORMED the American energy landscape. You're going to see a lot more of big, beautiful, clean coal!' U.S oil stocks didn't fare too well with Exxon Mobil (XOM) stock down 0.4% in early trading, with Chevron (CVX) also off 0.4%. More British focused stocks such as BP (BP) did better with it and Shell (SHEL) getting an around 0.35% lift. One of Trump's main mantras since his first day in charge, and before that in campaign speeches up and down the country, has been 'Drill, baby, drill' offering succour to oil and gas firms but switching the lights off for renewable energy firms. He has paused new permits for offshore wind farms and rowed back on green energy incentives. He has also ordered government agencies to identify ways to increase already record high U.S. oil and gas production, arguing past administrations had unnecessarily curtailed drilling. Feeling Green Indeed, in another Trumpy tweet today he praised another blow to the green energy lobby. 'To the many Great Americans enjoying their Summer Vacations in Atlantic City, Wildwood, and Cape May, in the wonderful State of New Jersey, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean: Remember that your Republican Congressman, and my GREAT friend, Jeff Van Drew, is fighting hard, and WINNING, to keep your Beaches BEAUTIFUL, with NO WINDMILLS. In fact, we just beat one of the biggest Windmill projects anywhere in the World. It would have been a disaster, but they gave up because of the onslaught of 'TRUMP'/Van Drew. Great job, Jeff!' Green stocks, such as Danish developer Orsted (DOGEF), have indeed suffered in comparison with oil. We have rounded up the best energy stocks to buy using our TipRanks comparison tool.
