The conspiracy theory captures our anxieties about how power really works, but the boring version might say more.
Watching Donald Trump try and fail to move the news cycle past Jeffrey Epstein this week was like watching an octopus spray ink and get eaten anyway: a wonder of evolution failing with the strategy that always worked for him.
“The Washington ’Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,” Trump posted on Sunday on Truth Social, adding that the Cleveland Guardians should go back to being the Indians, too. It was a fairly transparent attempt. Even the ultra-circumspect New York Times, among other outlets, described it as an effort to distract people from his administration’s refusal to release files related to the investigation of Epstein by federal law enforcement.
Dan Brooks writes essays, fiction and commentary in Missoula, Montana.
Watching Donald Trump try and fail to move the news cycle past Jeffrey Epstein this week was like watching an octopus spray ink and get eaten anyway: a wonder of evolution failing with the strategy that always worked for him.
“The Washington ’Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team,” Trump posted on Sunday on Truth Social, adding that the Cleveland Guardians should go back to being the Indians, too. It was a fairly transparent attempt. Even the ultra-circumspect New York Times, among other outlets, described it as an effort to distract people from his administration’s refusal to release files related to the investigation of Epstein by federal law enforcement.
Then, on Tuesday, House Republican leaders announced that they were cancelling scheduled floor votes and sending lawmakers home for summer recess early, reportedly to head off bipartisan demands to release Epstein material. In death, Epstein may be the only figure Trump cannot upstage, the one story more interesting than him.
In death, Epstein may be the only figure Trump cannot upstage, the one story more interesting than him.
There’s a reason the Epstein narrative — both what law enforcement and journalists have documented and the internet conspiracy theories it spawned — has become an immovable object in Americans’ attention, even as Trump tries to force it aside. The disgraced financier was a rich and connected villain who flouted law and decency and, for decades, largely got away with it, confirming Americans’ deepest anxieties about how power works.
The conspiracy theory is that Epstein provided politicians and celebrities with underage girls for sex, and his clients had him killed in prison to keep him quiet. Epstein getting murdered is a more intriguing story than reports he hung himself in his cell, but otherwise the strictly factual version is lurid enough. He allegedly trafficked dozens of victims, many of whom were teenagers, and some of whom have said that powerful figures participated in their abuse. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump — who has sued the paper over its report that he wrote Epstein a lewd birthday note alluding to “secrets” — appears in files related to the investigation, something Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly told him in May, a few weeks before he stopped demanding the files’ release. Trump has denied the existence of the letter, and POLITICO has not independently verified it. He has also not been accused of any wrongdoing linked to Epstein.