The Epstein scandal is engulfing Trump
The president is desperately trying to distract his base. It isn’t working
For the past decade, there has been nothing Donald Trump could do to alienate his base — and he knew it. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump quipped back in 2016. "It's, like, incredible."
He's not bragging anymore.
It increasingly looks like the Epstein scandal might finally loosen Trump’s hold on the MAGA faithful — for real this time. That’s because, unlike so many past scandals, this one cuts to the heart of their core concerns. It involves an apparent government coverup so deep that Republicans shut down a house of Congress to avoid transparency — exactly the kind of thing a shadowy, swampy deep state might do. It touches on an issue — child sexual abuse — so awful that it powered the biggest right-wing conspiracy theories, from Pizzagate to QAnon.
Only now, it’s their own guy being linked to an alleged elite, child-abusing cabal.
There is already evidence that Trump’s base is eroding. A Fox News poll this week found that 60 percent of Republicans do not believe the administration is being transparent about Epstein. A Quinnipiac poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans, including more than a third of Republicans, disapprove of the administration’s handling of the issue. It is perhaps “the most intraparty discontent Mr. Trump has experienced as president,” the New York Times reported. And this polling took place before the revelations of the past few days, including that Trump has known since May that his name appears in the Epstein files multiple times.
With the walls closing in, Trump is desperately trying to distract his base. First, he accused former President Obama of “treason” in the Oval Office, for reasons too stupid to waste time explaining. Then he had Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard theatrically release warmed-over documents that in no way suggest criminal behavior, while alleging a “yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy” by the Obama administration. To quote Marcia Brady: Sure, Jan.
With that gambit unlikely to gain much traction, Trump appears to be trying to enlist his old friend Ghislaine Maxwell in his defense. Justice Department officials on Thursday reportedly met with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year child sex trafficking sentence for having recruited and groomed teenage girls for Epstein. The meeting is prompting widespread speculation that Trump is preparing to pardon Maxwell if she will corroborate his claims and say he had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes.
Of course, the words of a convicted sex offender who is desperate to get out of prison — and is potentially willing to say anything to do so — should quite obviously not be taken seriously. But Trump is getting desperate. His usual bag of tricks isn’t working. And so here we are.
Many Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, initially dismissed the growing Trump/Epstein scandal as a distraction. Now, however, they are going on the offensive. And that is a good thing. To be clear, there are many issues that affect more lives than this one — including the heartbreaking stories of starvation now coming out of Gaza. But this is the issue that is resonating with the MAGA base. And if Democrats want to end Trumpism — and make real progress on a wide range of important issues — they sometimes need to speak the language of the other side.
That responsibility does not just lie with elected Democrats. Recently, Anand posted a rant in which he argued that anyone dunking on those turning away from Trump are making a mistake. What they should instead be doing, he argued, is embracing these MAGA refugees. “When people defect from a movement that is doing bad things,” he said, “there’s only one possible posture, and it’s the open-armed one.”
If there are MAGA people in your life, this is an important moment. Republicans appear to be engaging in a massive government conspiracy to protect Trump from revelations about his close association with an infamous convicted child sex predator. You should talk to Trump supporters about that fact — not by sneering at them, but by seeking common ground. This is an exceedingly rare opportunity to break Trump’s hold on his most ardent supporters. We would be deeply foolish not to take it.
have seen the pictures of the starving in Gaza. Remember people, this is what concentration camp victims looked like, that is those who survived. It is utterly appalling and without any excuse. I hope the perpetrators are hauled into courts and prosecuted for murder, crimes against humanity. If this is not a hate crime, I do not know what is.
We should be clear: Politics is about power. Anything goes. Nothing else matters. And power is about survival. Every species on this planet is innately aware of and takes action out of this simple truth. It is a truth that creates shame, fear, hatred and remorse....in all creatures. We have created belief systems across time to provide sacred understandings and foregiveness for our heinous acts of power to survive. No tribe, no state, no nation, no community, no individual has avoided the guilt, shame and continued practices that the need for power and survival generate.