The cover-up
The more Trump tries to bury the Epstein scandal, the more it grows.
In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the saying, “The cover-up is worse than the crime” came into fashion. Richard Nixon resigned the presidency because of the actions he took to obscure the details of the original break-in. He was never associated directly with the plot to bug Democratic Party headquarters, but people very close to him were. HIs lying and attempts to obstruct justice brought him down.
Trump may be facing a similar problem. He’s hell-bent on preventing the public from seeing the full extent of the Epstein files. He’s flailing, hurling wild accusations against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, hoping the base he’s always been able to distract will lose interest in Epstein. It’s not working.
Pam Bondi says she’s reaching out to Ghislane Maxwell, Epstein’s jailed co-conspirator in recruiting teenaged girls for sex, to get more information. Instead of quelling anything, the announcement sparked speculation that she’s about to get a pardon in exchange for her silence. Again, it’s the cover-up.
The whole episode has “A Face in the Crowd” feel to it. North Carolinian Andy Griffith gave a stellar performance as conman Lonesome Rhodes who uses his guile and wit to become a TV star with a huge following, fooling millions of people into believing he’s full of folksy wisdom. He’s brought down when he’s recorded mocking his sponsors and his audience as gullible rubes.
Trump thought he could manipulate his rubes by getting them riled up about Jeffery Epstein during his campaign and then they’d forget about it. He was wrong. For the first time, a portion of his hardcore base is turning on him. Maybe they are finally starting to see through the charade.
I’ve had a hard time understanding why this scandal is dragging Trump down. Apparently, MAGA sees the Epstein saga as the manifestation of a government so corrupt that its willing to protect child sexual abusers who are part of a great cabal of millionaires and politicians. It’s the epic conspiracy involving powerful men and government agencies who have no accountability and live above the law.
I guess what’s amazing to me is that MAGA didn’t see Trump in the middle of Epstein’s world. HE’S the rich and powerful man protecting Epstein. And of course he is. Trump and Epstein were New York party boys together in the 1980s and 1990s. Trump was making loutish comments about women and sleeping with young girls for years. Back then, I regarded Trump as a kind of tacky, cartoonish playboy.
I’m realizing now that MAGA didn’t think of him at all. Trump didn’t come on their radar screens until he became the host of The Apprentice. To them, he’s always been the imaginary CEO, hiring and firing people from his place of authority. They didn’t realize it was all a ruse and entertainment. Unfortunately, people like me didn’t see the national news media and government becoming a reality show.
What’s finally bringing the heat to Trump is the cover-up. He’s desperately trying to bury the Epstein files for some reason. The more he resists, the more that comes out. Yesterday, CNN released new photos of Trump and Epstein. Before that, the Wall Street Journal found a hand-drawn birthday card that Trump sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday. The more Trump tries to smother the scandal, the more it grows.
I don’t think Epstein will bring down Trump’s presidency, but it will erode his support significantly. Some of the people who have been his most loyal supporters, the conspiracy theorists so easily manipulated, are turning on him. Part of the MAGA base that became politicized because of Trump are going back into their holes. It’s suddenly dawning on them that Trump made fools of them, even if they wouldn’t put it that way.
Lights are going out in MAGAville. Of course, the bulbs have always been pretty dim.
I still cannot understand how they thought Trump was their “ savior” from child pedophila???
I recently saw the best T-shirt ever worn by a woman at my gym that read: “Critical Thinking: The Other National Deficit”. From what I can tell, MAGA *still* doesn’t see a link between Trump and Epstein. They’re not pissed because Fat Donny is in the Epstein case files, they’re pissed because they were PROMISED a release of the Epstein case files with all the salacious details of the evidence that proves their belief that Democrats are all members of a satanic hemochrome snorting pizza pedo cult. And they’re pissed because Fat Donny ain’t delivering on it. They don’t even care about wondering WHY he’s dragging his feet and trying to make the whole thing go away; they just want their red meat, and it’s being denied them by the guy who promised it to them in the first place. The majority of the Congressional Goobers probably *know* Fat Donny is a prominent figure in the Epstein story, but the true believers? They didn’t just drink the Kool-Aid, they drowned in it. If you showed them incontrovertible, documented video evidence of Dear Leader having his way with a 13-year-old narrated by God Himself, they’d swear it was fake. This is the 25% of the country that will never break with Tangerine Cthulhu no matter what he does. Which (oddly) is not the same 25% that think he’s handling the Epstein story “just fine”. They’ve mastered the art of Doublethink, perhaps because they never really mastered the art of “Think” to begin with.