Donald Trump and his administration have been engulfed in yet another scandal. But unlike previous scandals, this one is creating real divisions among many of his supporters. The issue today centers on Trump’s refusal to release information regarding Jeffrey Epstein, and his recent mocking of many supporters who were hoping to get transparency on this issue.
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
Publicly, he was a wealthy socialite who had very close connections to countless powerful and influential people such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew of Britain, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barrack, and Donald Trump himself. It was eventually discovered that he ran an elaborate sex trafficking pedophilia operation of hundreds of young women. He and his criminal conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, trafficked hundreds of victims over several decades. He operated an island in the Caribbean, multiple resorts in the United States and his own private jet nicknamed “The Lolita Express.” To what extent these two worlds overlapped have been subject to a tremendous amount of speculation over the years.
In 2008 Epstein was convicted by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. At that time, he was given a controversial plea deal sentence of just 13 months in a state prison with no federal charges and a work-release program of community service. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida who agreed to this sentencing was Alexander Acosta, who later became the Labor Secretary in the first Trump administration. When interviewed later about the lenient sentence, Acosta allegedly stated that he, “…was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to ‘leave it alone.'”
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Soon after, he was alleged to have committed suicide in his jail cell, but many people have questioned this claim. When the Department of Justice eventually released the video from jail, close to 3 minutes of footage were missing. The “Epstein files” and the “flight logs” have since then referred to the notion that names would be named of the various rich and powerful people who have been implicated in this sex trafficking ring and flown on Epstein’s plane. Many people, including on the right and in the Trump/MAGA world, passionately believe that these things exist.
So, because many MAGA influencers, including members of the Trump administration, had for years promoted claims about Epstein and the so-called elites who may have been involved in his schemes for years, a firestorm erupted a few weeks ago when high-ranking Trump Justice Department officials publicly announced that there is nothing more to be found about Epstein and any potential elite co-conspirators.
Within a matter of weeks, the Trump administration has gone from saying that they were going to release the Epstein files, to the claim that there are no files, to the argument that those supporters who keep demanding that files be released are stupid and “weaklings,” to the argument that there are files but they were fabricated by the Democrats.
Many people, including many of those in Trump’s loyal base, are not buying these absurd and convoluted lies. In fact, recent opinion polling seems to show that suddenly Republican, Democratic and independent voters all want more Epstein information released. Trump, his administration, and Republicans in Congress are now desperately trying to sweep the issue under the rug.
In some ways, Donald Trump and his administration are facing a “Frankenstein’s monster” that he and his biggest conspiracy-theory loving supporters largely created along with telling his supporters for years fantastical stories about Trump standing up to a supposed deep-state cabal. Millions have become so convinced that there is a deeper Epstein conspiracy that they can’t imagine that nothing more can be found.
But as anyone who has paid attention to Trump and his behavior over the years, it should be clear why he might want to squash this controversy once and for all.
For at least 15 years, Trump was a “party friend” with Epstein. There are several photos and at least one video of Trump and Epstein together, and it is clear in all that they were very chummy and that they both enjoyed openly looking at and touching much younger women. Recently Trump has said that Epstein was a “creep” and that “I wasn’t a fan,” but in 2002, Trump told New York magazine that Epstein was a “Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” And we know that Trump had flown on Epstein’s private jet at least seven times. It would not be surprising at all if Trump knowingly took advantage of Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme for his own pleasure.
Even if he didn’t, or it can’t be proven, it is obvious that Trump is the same type of predator as Epstein. He has been accused twice of entering beauty pageant dressing rooms unannounced and eyeing contestants, and he has been accused of groping by dozens of women. When he was 46, he told two 14- year-old girls that, “Wow! Just think – in a couple years I’ll be dating you” and he has been captured on video making similar comments about other young women. He has admitted on audio that sometimes he will “grab them by the p***y,” and he has been civilly convicted of “sexual assault” against a well-known writer. He even mused that if his own daughter wasn’t his daughter, he’d be dating her, too!
The whole truth of the Epstein controversy may never totally come out. And what effects it will have on Trump politically remain to be seen. But we do know that both Epstein and Trump represent a type of conspiracy – a very real one – that is staring us all directly in the face.
Both men are and have been predators. Both men are and have been part of the so-called swamp that Trump claimed he would get rid of if he was elected to office. Both are and have been wealthy and influential and powerful, both part of the capitalist class which exploits us, lies to us, scams us, abuses us – particularly women and vulnerable young girls – and destroys our planet. Although to avoid political controversy Trump has tried to distance himself from his long and obvious friendship with Epstein, and although Epstein was more systematic about his illegal pursuit of sexual dominance, they are otherwise the same.
What we can say with confidence is that this whole episode is yet another indictment of a system that allows wealthy and powerful people to act without any regard for the harm they inflict on others. Just as they feel entitled to assault and dominate young vulnerable women, they also feel entitled to our bodies and our labor as a means to enrich themselves. They also feel entitled to our planet and our natural resources that they want to extract to generate their profits. And they and their media often manufacture fantastical conspiracy theories to distract us from the real outrages that they perpetrate every day! Some are more real than others, but it doesn’t change how they distract us from the real conspiracy – that a small group of people rule over us.
The countless victims deserve the truth from this Epstein scandal. We all deserve the truth. But we need much more than that.
What we really need is to get rid of the entire system that allows parasites like Trump and Epstein to lie to us, manipulate us, exploit us, and benefit from doing so. It’s not just Trump and Epstein and a few other supposedly “evil” elites who need to go. It’s the whole rotten system that nurtures them and will continue to do so unless we stop it!
