To paraphrase a perennial Washington query: What is the president going to launch and when is he going to launch it?
Donald Trump is reeling from a spectacular defeat, simply his worst from his personal occasion on Capitol Hill throughout two turbulent presidencies, after each step he took to stall and deflect the Jeffrey Epstein saga blew up in his face.
No one would have believed as not too long ago as this previous weekend {that a} invoice requiring the Justice Department to launch files associated to the convicted intercourse offender would race through the GOP Congress with solely one vote against it by Tuesday night.
But such could be the energy of all of the sudden unleashed political justice.
Now, Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi, who each triggered the political uproar by pledging to open the Epstein files, solely to then refuse to take action, are again the place they began. Only in a a lot more weak political place.
And they’ve unappetizing political decisions at a second when Trump’s presidency seems broken, his popularity is falling and a crush of different intractable points bogs down his White House. Speculation is rising about whether or not a president who many have been not too long ago warning was a dictator is near turning into a lame duck.
The overwhelming House and Senate strikes to launch the Epstein files are a surprising triumph for Epstein’s victims after they grew to become more seen earlier this summer season. A president who believes he enjoys unfettered energy and who disdains democracy was defeated by grassroots political campaigning together with a handful of brave lawmakers from each events.
But Haley Robson, a survivor of Epstein’s abuse, told NCS’s Erin Burnett that Tuesday’s strikes weren’t the finish for ladies who way back misplaced belief the authorities would shield them. “We have to be very honest with ourselves. … We do have a long road in front of us,” she mentioned.
But the strain of the survivors’ marketing campaign now threatens to bear down on Trump alone, after the House and the Senate moved with extraordinary pace to dump a radioactive political issue on the White House. Their tempo may a minimum of momentarily weigh on the thoughts of a president who was twice saved from conviction in an impeachment trial by pliant Republican senators.
In considered one of the most startling developments, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who’d lengthy opposed the invoice before Trump’s reversal, insisted the Senate should make adjustments to the invoice. But senators ignored him and handed it as much as the White House straight away.
Unless Trump and Bondi launch the Epstein files instantly, the query that’s been haunting Trump for months will now change into even more acute: What is he hiding?
A bid by the DOJ to play for time — maybe by arguing paperwork can’t be launched due to ongoing investigations — may impede the hopes of survivors. But it may additionally imply Trump by no means escapes a storm that, judging by his eruptions at reporters, is driving him to distraction. Another DOJ technique might be to launch numerous pages of Epstein files however with particulars, names and different info blacked out to keep away from incriminating individuals. But that will solely extend the controversy.
There’s been no proof of prison wrongdoing by Trump in relation to his former friendship with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019. Trump once more branded the drama a Democratic “hoax” on Tuesday. But multiple mentions of the president in emails despatched by Epstein not too long ago launched by Congress elevate the chance that he’s additionally referenced in paperwork held by the DOJ.
One choice for Bondi might be an unlimited doc dump that casts suspicion on a number of outstanding males who victims say maintained ties to Epstein in the hope that any minor mentions of Trump may be swept away in a deluge of scandal. But as president, he’s beneath the harshest highlight and would remember to appeal to the most curiosity, though he has mentioned he all the time knew Epstein was a creep.
Of course, Trump has turned his DOJ into an arm of his political motion. So it might not be a shock to see partial disclosures that don’t fulfill his critics. But such is the intrigue round the drama, that there is no assure individuals would consider that he’d launched every part. And conspiracists who’ve obsessed about the Epstein issue won’t ever be happy.
“The next question is, will Trump use some other maneuvers in an effort to deny the information to the public that’s required by the statute?” Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch mentioned Tuesday. “We’ll see, but I don’t trust Trump on that.”
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who broke with Trump to power via the invoice demanding the launch of the Epstein files, warned after the vote that he would act if there was an try and thwart disclosure of the Epstein proof. As a final resort, he mentioned, he may learn aloud the names of alleged associates of the accused intercourse trafficker in the House. But he added that was solely “if we hit all of the walls — but so far, we’re making it through the walls and over the walls, and we’re getting this done.”
Beyond the issue of subsequent steps for Trump, there are the questions of how a lot political injury he’s suffered in current days, each inside his personal occasion and private energy base and in the nation more broadly.
Ever since returning to the White House, Trump has wielded large energy via dominance, or a minimum of the notion that he’s omnipotent. He by no means adopted his occasion; it adopted him. But the fable of whole energy was shattered on Sunday night time when he reversed his adamant place that the House ought to block the try and launch the Epstein files.
The flip-flop was an try and defuse a looming political loss. But if his fable of omnipotence frays, it’s doubtless solely to encourage additional challenges to his authority. Of course, Trump’s intuition may be to lash out with constitutionally questionable conduct.
This is an uncommon second for Trump. Could it presage a brand new section of his presidency the place the GOP doesn’t transfer in lockstep on his orders? Or is the Epstein issue — which, a minimum of to start with, was disproportionately essential to the conservative base — a one-off?
One check may come quickly for Trump over whether or not GOP lawmakers revolt over one other matter: the expiration of enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which triggered the authorities shutdown. Some GOP lawmakers wish to compromise with Democrats on the issue, however the president reiterated on Tuesday that he opposed any resolution that sends more cash to insurance coverage companies.
The US political calendar is relentless. And following larger-than-expected victories by Democrats in governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey this month, Republicans are cautious about midterm elections subsequent yr. And onetime Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s current assaults on Trump’s globetrotting and lack of empathy over excessive costs counsel that frustration with him cuts deeper than Epstein alone.
Yet Trump is a survivor, and never simply of two assassination makes an attempt. He pulled off the biggest political comeback in historical past in 2024 regardless of a prison conviction and after leaving energy in shame in 2021 after refusing to simply accept the outcomes of an election. No trendy president has ever had such an unshakable connection along with his base.
Still, Trump’s most potent political technique has been to say he’s been persecuted. That’s not an strategy that appears more likely to work as he’s confronted with victims of Epstein providing their testimony in public.
Stunning developments on the Epstein files are usually not occurring in isolation. It’s been a horrible few weeks for Trump. His polling numbers have slumped, particularly over his dealing with of the economic system. In one other potential blow to his aura of invincibility, a federal decide this week raised grave questions about the viability of the DOJ’s prosecution of considered one of his enemies, former FBI Director James Comey.
The Supreme Court not too long ago seemed skeptical about Trump’s tariff coverage forward of a seismic pending ruling on presidential authority. And a federal courtroom on Tuesday blocked Texas from utilizing new congressional maps drawn at the president’s behest to assist the GOP’s bid to carry on to its House majority in subsequent yr’s elections. (Texas plans to enchantment to the US Supreme Court.)
This leaves Trump needing a political rebound — a tricky ask for a White House organized on the precept of the president’s infallibility and for a commander in chief who shall be 80 on his subsequent birthday.
It’s potential Trump now not controls his personal political destiny. Presidents typically get overtaken by occasions in second phrases — most not too long ago George W. Bush, whose political capital was consumed by the Iraq conflict and Hurricane Katrina.
And the symbolic may of Epstein’s long-overlooked victims has the look of a political power with unstoppable momentum.
Epstein’s demise disadvantaged lots of his victims of justice.
But on Tuesday, Jess Michaels, an Epstein survivor, spoke about watching House members add their votes to a 427-1 victory that she informed NCS’s Jake Tapper represented a dedication to not “stay silent about powerful predators.”
There’s no proof of prison conduct by Trump. But his dealing with of the Epstein disaster now threatens to devour his presidency.