By Carl P. Leubsdorf / The Dallas Morning News
When presidents get into political hot water, it’s almost always their own fault. That’s as true today for President Donald Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein case as it was for his predecessors.
And the subsequent political storm doesn’t necessarily require any legal wrongdoing.
Former President Bill Clinton’s reckless inability to control his personal desires led to sex with Monica Lewinsky; and his impeachment. Richard Nixon’s approval of the illegal Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up led to his resignation.
Joe Biden’s refusal to retire despite visible evidence of his aging prompted aides to minimize his condition; and Republicans to probe an alleged cover-up.
And the years-long embrace by Trump and his supporters of conspiracy theories about the government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case has left the president under political siege from members of both parties over his ties to the pedophile financier.
Trump blames it all on his usual Democratic targets. But it was candidate Trump who promised to open the government’s Epstein files; and its probes into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He fed the presumption that something sinister prompted the so-called “deep state” to withhold the truth about the involvement of powerful people.
Now, however, Trump is the “deep state” and his administration’s failure to find the promised disclosures has prompted most Americans to think he is hiding something, a belief that gains more traction with each new disclosure of some connection between them.
Last week’s Economist/YouGov poll showed 4 of 5 American adults believe the federal government should release all the Epstein files, and 2 of every 3 think the government is hiding something, including half of all Republicans polled.
The GOP’s underlying concern is that Trump’s relationship to Epstein was more than just friendship. Though they later fell out, they spent a lot of time together back then. “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do.”
Later, as Epstein encountered legal trouble, Trump distanced himself.
“Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” he told reporters in 2019, after Epstein was charged with sex trafficking. “I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan.”
After authorities reported Epstein committed suicide in jail, Trump retweeted a post alleging Clinton was connected to his death. When asked about it, he said, “what we’re saying is we want an investigation. I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding.”
But there is no sign his administration did anything. Last year, Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump if he would release various investigative files, including the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files and the Epstein files.
“Would you declassify the Epstein files?” she asked. “Yeah, yeah, I would,” Trump responded. The Trump War Room — his campaign’s social media account — posted his response to X with the caption: “President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files.”
But the issue was not a major one in the campaign and seemed quiescent except in MAGA world. In February, Trump’s new attorney general, Pam Bondi, was asked about the Epstein files. She said they are “sitting on my desk right now,” adding she planned to release what she called the “Epstein binders.”
But the material she gave pro-Trump groups mostly contained previously known information, sparking outrage over whether other material was still being concealed, including a possible Epstein “Client List.” That outrage grew when the Justice Department, after reviewing the files, announced last month there was no “client list” and said it wouldn’t release any more documents on the case.
When asked about it, Trump parried the question. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” he asked a reporter. “That is unbelievable.”
An ABC reporter asked him if Bondi told him his name was in the Epstein files. “No, no,” he replied, adding she told him about the “credibility” of various things in them, blaming it all on “a hoax” manufactured by Democrats.
But two subsequent disclosures in The Wall Street Journal undercut Trump’s distancing efforts. The first alleged Trump gave Epstein a “bawdy” birthday card in 2003. Trump denied it and sued the Journal for libel.
The second disclosed Bondi told Trump in May his name appeared in the Epstein files. Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged that, but added, “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats, smelling political blood, jumped on the case, joining some of Trump’s most fervent MAGA allies to demand the government release everything related to Epstein.
Together, they tied the House up in procedural knots, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to start the August recess a week early. And a bipartisan majority of a House Oversight subcommittee voted to subpoena the Epstein files; plus those of the Kennedy and King assassinations.
Trump can only blame his success in convincing fellow Republicans of various conspiracy theories. Just as many believed his false contentions that former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and he really won the 2020 election, they believed the government was hiding something about Epstein.
Even if these new inquiries don’t find anything, MAGA’s hard core may not believe it.
Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Readers may write to him via email at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com. ©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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