The media coverage of Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Donald Trump is intense, polarized and growing greater every day, with many – including those on the right – pushing for increased transparency of the Epstein Files. The White House is downplaying the significance and blaming the Democrats, calling it a hoax.
But Trump wound up having to accept what he had been fighting to suppress in the face of certain defeat.
In a striking reversal, Trump changed his tune at the last minute and urged lawmakers to call for the release of more Epstein files, saying on Truth Social, “DON’T CARE.”
The president caved in the face of relentlessly negative TV coverage and, for the first time, jumped on the train leaving the station because he was getting steamrolled by his own party.
The House passed the measure to release the files 427-1 and the Senate quickly blessed it as well.
Newly released emails – at least 23,000 of them – dominate headlines, even pushing the 43-day end to the shutdown to the bottom of the news cycle. And that’s hard to do.
On NBC Wednesday at 10:14 pm, cameras were trained on the president. “Let’s go now live to the White House on a historic day where President Trump is signing a bill just passed by the house to end the longest government shutdown in history.”
At 11 pm on MS NOW’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, the shutdown news was nowhere to be found. “We have to be ready for a really really big and crazy news day tomorrow. Because Donald Trump is going to want to change the subject…away from those Jeffrey Epstein emails about him.”
It’s clear that O’Donnell, and others, have no intention of letting him do that.
Trump and his team have been pushing back hard, calling the file uproar a Democratic-inspired “hoax.” And it’s dividing the MAGA media into two camps: Those who increasingly want more Epstein files released and those who don’t. Who in their right mind wants to vote to keep the sexually charged files secret heading into an election year?
Trump has acknowledged that he and Epstein were friends, but he broke off the relationship and denied knowing about trafficking of underage girls (though by then he had served time for sexual abuse). Newly released emails contradict his stance. Some in the conservative media world are arguing that the emails show Trump did nothing wrong.
In a striking reversal, Trump changed his tune at the last minute and urged lawmakers to call for the release of more files, saying on Truth Social, “DON’T CARE.” The president caved in the face of relentlessly negative TV coverage and, for the first time, jumped on the train leaving the station because he was getting steamrolled by his own party.
On CNN, Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark podcast, said, “It’s a sign just how weak Donald Trump is,” adding that it was “a real change from a month ago.”
It seems true that he’s lost his footing, again, on this one. Trump almost never changes his mind. And this time he really had no choice when looking at the number of Republicans planning to vote to release the files.
In the Oval Office, taking questions from reporters, it took almost until the end of the news conference until someone asked about the most talked about story. Were they afraid of his response? Last week he yelled at a reporter who asked about Epstein, “Quiet, quiet!”
When asked by an MS NOW reporter whether he would sign a bill to release all files, he said, “I’m all for it.” Yet clearly he wants the issue to go away. “Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take away from us. It’s really a Democrat problem.”
A strong thread among conservative media hosts is that the release of the emails is politically motivated. Some go as far as to say that Trump might have been informing on Epstein – acting as a “mole” or “rat.”
Fox isn’t shying away from covering the release of the files. At the top of The Five, Jesse Waters let loose. “You want it, you got it. No smoking gun.” He added: “Not a single victim has come forward and said Trump has done anything.”
Liberal Harold Ford reminded the group that the president campaigned on releasing files in 2024, and he hopes the administration can get back to “full transparency.”
Kayleigh McEnany, a former Trump press secretary, said the American people wonder, “What the hell is he hiding? It is a fair question.”
Greg Gutfeld said the real takeaway is the awareness of how the media and Democrats work. “It’s not what’s in the files, it’s what will be distorted…the ravenous press, they’re pathetic and they’re desperate for relevance, will take anybody and destroy them.” I don’t think all of us are quite that morally repugnant.
On Fox’s Special Report, Brit Hume said, “I think these files are going to turn out to be a dead end, and it’s not a good idea for the president to be opposed to releasing them.” And he said Trump was backed into a corner. “He decided to tell Republicans to release the files because he thought he’d rather get in front of the parade than be dragged behind it.”
MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace said the move showed that “Trump is following his party, not leading” and that it’s a “weird” place for him. “Donald, they are onto you.”
And MS NOW anchor Katy Tur summed up the whole controversy pretty succinctly. “It’s just so gross.” No way I’m going to argue with that.
Megyn Kelly addressed Epstein’s sex crimes on her radio show. “There’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a five-year-old, you know?” And she questioned whether the word “pedophile” was appropriate.
Seems like she’s hedging her bets, not wanting to go up against Trump which, for most others in the MAGA universe, has never gone well. She’s facing blistering attacks. The Daily Show host, Josh Johnson, questioned how she was ever a lawyer. “Everyone knows there is a big difference between a 15-year-old and a five-year-old. But everyone also knows there is never a good reason to be talking about that difference.”
Epstein’s many survivors fervently want the files released. They see it as a crime of sex trafficking against teenagers and want the public to view this through a human lens, saying they had promising futures that were stolen from them.
In a newly-released, riveting, yet painful TV ad, victims face the camera holding signs: “I suffer so much pain.” Women flash on the screen quickly giving their ages, saying, “I was 14, 16, 17.” Others plead for transparency. “This is me when I met Jeffrey Epstein.” “It’s time to shine a light into the darkness.” “It’s time to bring secrets out of the darkness.”
Many of the survivors joined together on the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday, calling for transparency, holding up those same pictures – one saying she voted for Trump but his handling of the furor had become a “national embarrassment.” MS NOW and CNN carried the one-hour event live. Fox, however, did not, and instead focused on ICE raids in North Carolina, and other news.
The recent email dump does not portray journalists in a favorable light, to say the least. In one 2015 email, reporter and author Michael Wolff dished out advice to Epstein.
Wolff said he expected CNN to ask Trump a question about their relationship at an upcoming Republican presidential debate. Epstein asked how he should handle it.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
Atlantic staff writer Mark Leibovich lamented the way Wolff cultivates sources. “He goes much farther than most journalists would. It paints a bad picture of my industry,” he said on MS NOW.
Seriously, what kind of game is Wolff playing? Is he the predator’s consigliere?
Another email shows Landon Thomas, a New York Times reporter who profiled Epstein but later started tripping him off to what other journalists were doing, was fired by the paper for violating ethical standards after soliciting a $30,000 donation for a Harlem cultural center. Kudos to Leibovich and other journalists for calling out their own.
The media narratives underscore how the Epstein files are being used as a tool in partisan battles. Those on the right argue it’s a Democratic distraction, while critics on the left cry lack of transparency. And the victims are lost in the dustup.
The administration has taken a lot of political heat grappling with a mess of Trump’s making. Instead of clearly addressing the Epstein issue from the beginning, Trump continues to find himself in a big media swirl of controversy, which takes away from his attempts to talk about the economy and other kitchen-table issues.
The pressure to downplay the Epstein saga prompted Trump to lash out at the media after a female reporter raised the issue on Air Force One.
“Quiet, Piggy,” he declared. It was hardly his finest hour.
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