Trump announced that he told AG Pam Bondi to release Epstein's records.
It's a switch.
It's TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out.
It's smart.
Trump acknowledges no higher authority than himself. Not the Constitution, the law, the courts, the Congress, or any tradition or norms. When Trump said, "He who saves his country does not violate any law," he meant it. Americans should take it both seriously and literally. Trump thinks he has a mandate and that he embodies the will of the people. Therefore, his astonishing selfishness and narcissism is patriotic and virtuous; after all, what is good for Trump is good for America.
Trump's understanding that his authority comes directly from the people is his point of vulnerability. He has to stay popular.
I had prepared a blog post for this morning based on the premise that Trump is underperforming his usual skill level in message management for sticking with the "nothing to see here" line. It began:
Trump is making a ham-handed mess of the Epstein matter. He's usually better than this.
Now it's getting worse.
If a sketch comedy like Saturday Night Live wanted an exaggerated character to look guilty while throwing up red flags they might have someone telling police not to look in one specific closet in the apartment, that the closet contents are boring, that if there were anything in that closet it was put there by the previous tenant.
Trump is way off his game.
That story line is out of date. He has TACOed. Still relevant is that Trump looks guilty of something, and that he wants desperately to cover it up. His telephone call to The Wall Street Journal showed his commitment to the cover-up. He urged them to kill a story about a letter in their possession, purported to be from Trump, offering birthday congratulations to Epstein while mentioning secrets. This letter was written a year after he told New York Magazine:
I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. 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.
My own sense is that Trump can weather any revelations regarding sexual misbehavior, including testimony by former 14-year-old victims or even photographs and video of Trump with them. It won't matter to his base. They know Trump is a highly sexed predator who takes what he wants, be it Greenland, the power to set tariffs and deport immigrants, or beautiful young women. Trump will deny it and say the evidence was created by Biden or Obama or Hillary. Trump supporters just don't care about Trump's sexual predation. They care that he is deporting immigrants.
They also care that Trump is covering something up. They don't like him saying "nothing to see here, move on." Trump does not need to open the files in fact, but he needs to look like he is trying to do it. So that is the new line. Fortunately for Trump, there will be impediments in the form of sealed grand jury testimony, protection of victims, and questions about manufactured evidence. It is possible that Bondi will have to pretend to be defying Trump if she says some material must stay sealed. That would be a fun little show: an independent and courageous Pam Bondi saying "no" to Trump.
Trump stops doing things if he gets clear negative signals. Stock market signals. Bond market signals. Falling-dollar signals. Signals of low turnout at a military parade. Signals of angry posts on Truth Social from MAGA fans. Negative signals from MAGA influencers. Trump is a good salesman. He watches his customers.
Courts may slow the Trump agenda, but Trump doesn't respect them, and he will use pretense and the elastic power of the Constitution to do pretty much what he wants. Trump will stop when he observes that the public doesn't like what he is doing. That is the off-switch for Trump: negative public opinion. Trump will sell his version of the truth. There is a lot to dislike about the Trump agenda, and he is still covering up in the Epstein mess and the public may see through this. Or not.
Democrats need to be selling, too.
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3 comments:
Trump is releasing the Epstein files because his base has turned on him, and he knows it. Without his base, Trump isn't squat. Trump insulted his base last week, and they turned on him hard, and he got scared. Trump is hiding something with the Epstein files. There are rich and powerful people who have a sexual fetish for children. They need to be exposed.
MAGA believes Trump was sent by God to wage war against a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles. Now it looks like he’s desperately trying to conceal that he’s one of them. If that’s what it takes to bring him down, bring it on!
The "release" is a con...it will take months if ever.
Also, the MAGA base is laser focused on potential "pizzagate" style conspiracies, that is all the more sensational with the alleged child rape. This is bigger than Trump for them and if he is implicated, as many suspect, they will turn on him. They are as fickle as they are dumb.
Also, Republicans see this and are circling like hyenas around a wounded water buffalo.
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