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Trump hyped the Epstein files, then backpedaled. Can Democrats expose his conspiracy game without playing it themselves?
by Bill Scher
You can forgive your MAGA friends if they thought Donald Trump was going to release the entire Jeffrey Epstein files.
During
the 2024 campaign, Trump was asked by a Fox News reporter if he would
release classified information about different events that have stoked
conspiracy theories. He agreed he would do so regarding the September 11
terrorist attacks and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Then he was
asked, “Would you declassify the Epstein files?”
If you watched the 2024 segment on Fox and Friends, you heard Trump say, “Yeah, I would.” But Fox and Friends didn’t air what he said next:
“I guess I would. I think that less so because, you don’t know, you
don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there,
because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I
would, or at least … I don’t know about Epstein so much as I do the
others. Certainly, about the way he died. It’d be interesting to find
out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the
cameras didn’t happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I’d go a long
way toward that one.”
Memory-holing that squeamishness, three months later, Trump
told a podcaster, “Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it. … Yeah, I’d
be inclined to do the Epstein, I’d have no problem with it.” And after
that, J.D. Vance said, “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list.
That is an important thing.”
Trafficking
in conspiracy theories is not a hobby for Trump. It’s integral to his
political strategy and has been since 2011, when he began promoting the
Barack Obama birther canard. Conspiracy theorizing appeals to voters
with a fervent cynicism of government and other institutions. For a
politician to embrace conspiracies renders him as separate from and
untainted by “the establishment.” This creates a bond between the
politician and longstanding disaffected constituents.
Being
president is tantamount to personifying the establishment. But Trump
wants to maintain his street cred. This year, he kept stoking, even
inventing, conspiracy theories. For example, Trump has ordered an
investigation into Joe Biden’s use of the autopen to
sign pardons for members of his administration and family, insinuating
that the octogenarian ex-president lacked the cognitive abilities to
exercise his pardon power, and revealing Trump’s obsession with pursuing
politically motivated criminal charges against those pardoned. (That’s
why Biden gave them pre-emptive pardons in the first place.)
Trump
also named longtime conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead
the Health and Human Services department, allowing the anti-vaxxer’s
addled thinking to guide public health decisions, such as the recent
recommendation of Kennedy’s advisers to remove thimerosal from vaccines—an additive that conspiracy theorists have long blamed without scientific proof for an increase in autism.
For
a few months at least, Trump let his top Justice Department
officials—including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash
Patel—announce they would be sharing unreleased information from the
Epstein files. Bondi said in February that Epstein’s client list, which
supposedly includes the names of VIPs who committed sex crimes, was
“sitting on my desk,” and in March said a “truckload of evidence” was
sent to Patel. Just one month ago, Patel told podcaster Joe Rogan, who
asked about video of Epstein in prison, “You’re going to get all that
information. Like, that’s literally what we’re putting together. And
we’re going to give you every single thing we have and can.”
After months of build-up came the let-down. Trump’s Justice Department released a two-page memo,
concluding that its “systematic review revealed no incriminating
‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein
blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not
uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged
third parties.” Raw video was made public and showed nothing of import,
though Miami Herald reporter Julie
Brown, who has been in the vanguard of Epstein coverage for years, said
the footage doesn’t show Epstein’s cell or the area outside his cell.
When
Trump’s conspiratorial-minded fans were unsettled, the president
lectured them. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump said last week,
“This guy’s been talked about for years. … Are you still talking about
this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.” He was addressing a
reporter, but he might as well have been talking directly to the MAGA
hordes.
Some of the hordes have been pushing back.
They’re questioning if Trump has a self-interested reason for holding
back information, belying the notion that they have a cultish loyalty to
Trump. The number two man at the FBI, Dan Bongino, reportedly is
considering resigning because he’s frustrated by how Bondi handled the
matter.
Out
of all of Trump’s transgressions, why would failing to uncover an
Epstein-related conspiracy be the thing that divides his MAGA coalition?
Trump’s advocacy of conspiracy theories is essential in keeping the
MAGA coalition together. Some factions of voters may not have really
expected Trump to bring peace to Ukraine or complete the border wall,
but they expected Epstein’s client list. Elon Musk sure did, and he isn’t letting his 222 million X followers forget it.
There
are two ways Democrats can handle this bizarre turn of events. One is
to fan the flames of a new conspiracy theory, and insinuate that Trump
is involved in a cover-up because he’s directly implicated. (“What is
Trump hiding? Release the Epstein files,” read a post on X from the
Democratic National Committee.)
And
while turning the tables on Trump is sorely tempting, without actual
evidence of criminal behavior by Trump (in this instance), Democrats
would be feeding the cynicism that is already eroding institutions and
fraying democracy. Trying to one-up Trump in the conspiracy theory game,
without knowing if a smoking gun could ever be found, is a dangerous
game.
Instead,
Democrats could use this moment to support the delegitimization of
conspiracy theorizing, showing how Trump promotes wild accusations when
they serve his political purposes, then pooh-poohs them when they don’t.
To make that case requires not emulating that behavior.
If there ever was a moment that could break Trump’s hold on his voters, this is it.
Bill Scher is the Politics Editor of the Washington Monthly. |