Rex Huppke
President Donald Trump is not good at hiding his panic, and he is Panicked with a capital “P” – you can guess what else the “P” stands for – about the Jeffrey Epstein files.
In his present panic, Trump is making threats, like this one from Nov. 14, posted on his always-bonkers Truth Social account: “I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”
Trump doesn’t get that Democrats don’t care who the Epstein files bring down
This is the thing Trump, in his mental slurry of narcissism and denial, doesn’t get: Most Americans – liberal, conservative or otherwise – don’t think anyone involved with a notorious convicted sex offender who died in jail awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges should get a pass.
In fact, I would be delighted to see that happen, because I think pedophiles and anyone pedophile-adjacent or even loosely connected to sex trafficking is a terrible person who should be held accountable.
My condemnation of loathsome, lecherous, criminal and life-destroying behavior is not limited to members of the opposition party.
Trump clearly knows how bad the Epstein files will be for him
Trump and his baggage handlers in the Republican Party know, without a doubt, that releasing the long-sought-after files will be devastating for the president. Why do I say that with such certainty? Because if releasing those files absolved Trump of any guilt involving his longtime friendship with Epstein, those files would not only be out there in full, they’d be plastered on giant billboards across the nation under large, bright-red font that reads: “TRUMP ABSOLVED!”
I know that. You know that. Everyone who has ever paid attention to Trump knows that.
But instead of fulfilling the dreams of his own conspiratorial base – a base that believes at its core that the Epstein files contain proof of a vast left-wing cabal of demonic pedophiles – Trump and Co. have done everything humanly possible to downplay all things Epstein.
After feeding its base Epstein conspiracies, GOP is running away
After lawmakers in the House, including four Republicans, signed a discharge petition that will force a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files, Trump posted: “Some Weak Republicans have fallen” into the Democrats’ “clutches because they are soft and foolish.”
That came after Trump’s toadie in chief, House Speaker Mike Johnson, kept the House out of session throughout the government shutdown in a wildly transparent effort to delay the discharge petition.
Trump has called the Epstein scandal “all a big hoax.” He has told his supporters they need to move on. He has had Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell moved to a cozy minimum security prison that isn’t supposed to house sex offenders. And he has threatened Republicans pushing for the release of the Epstein files.
We already know Trump is featured prominently in Epstein documents
Given that Trump’s name is all over many emails and other documents recently released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – including Epstein claiming Trump “knew about the girls” and spent hours at Epstein’s house with one of the victims – we get a clear picture of why Trump’s scared.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of recently released Epstein documents found Trump’s name shows up in 1,670 of 2,324 email threads. It’s not hard to connect the dots. It’s really just two dots and a straight line.
What Trump is clearly missing is that releasing the Epstein files could be the one thing people in Trump’s America can agree on. An NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll published in October found that 77% of all respondents want the files released, “84% of Democrats, 67% of Republicans, and 83% of independents.”
You can’t get that many Americans to agree on anything.
The same poll found 61% of Americans disapprove of the administration’s handling of the files, with even 25% of Republicans registering their disapproval. That’s amazing, given that Trump has transformed the Republican Party into an iron-clad cult of personality.
