The Epstein controversy threatens to distract from Trump’s wins : NPR

President Trump, joined by republican legislators, signs the only law on law during a picnic of the military family of independence on the southern lawn of the White House on July 04 in Washington, DC

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President Trump and the Ministry of Justice processing documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein affair threaten to distract the public from his victory channel and resume his program, according to a republican strategist Alex Conant.

“This is not what they want to talk about,” said Conant, partner of Firehouse Strategies and the presidential campaign of Marco Rubio in 2016.

Trump hinted during the 2024 presidential campaign that Epstein files – which were considered a “list of customers” used by the sex offender condemned for the allegedly powerful people – would be published.

But this week, the president urged his supporters to move from the discussion on the case after the Ministry of Justice announced that he had found no evidence during his examination of the case that such a list existed and that no file on the case would be made public.

“You see their frustration starting to bubble and the tone of the president and his long tweets earlier this week when he attacked his own supporters to have fixed this,” said Conant in an interview with Morning edition.

Epstein died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019 while waiting for a trial for accusations of sex trafficking. His death fueled conspiracy theories even if Trump administration officials confirmed that his death was a suicide.

Trump is now focusing on convincing her of Maga’s base to spend at a time when he prefers to sell his victories, such as the adoption of his bill on tax and signature expenses, avoiding a wider conflict between Israel and Iran and the Senate vote Thursday to recover billions of dollars from public media and foreign aid.

Trump went so far as to call the Epstein situation of “hoax” and reprimanded supporters who “joined this Taurus ****” in a recent social article of truth.

“His supporters are obsessed with this decade scandal of decade on which he can never make them happy and it is deeply frustrating for him,” said Conant.

Addressing Michel Martin of NPR, Conant explained why this moment turns out to be so difficult for the president and how he could maneuver.

This interview is modified for length and clarity.

Michel Martin: So, all of this has the idea of slamming his supporters, of calling them stupid, saying that they make the dirty democrats for them. In one of these publications on social networks, he said that he no longer wanted their support. It is unusual to slam your supporters like this, but is it useful in any way whatsoever to pass on this?

Alex Conant: It’s very unusual for Trump. One of the things that has really marked his political career is that he never allows daylight between him and his base. You think back to the first mandate, where he has gained so much warmth on the application of immigration to the border with regard to families [separation] And then so much heat during the pandemic with masks and the way he treated Anthony Fauci – and he always ends up storing with his base. I cannot think of another time he attacked his own base like this to disagree with him on something. And I think it is just proof that he is so frustrated that they want to talk about something that is not politically useful. And he wants to talk about things that help him politically with self -employed, with moderates before the middle of next year.

Martin: There are people who will listen to this and say: “What is it really?” Why do you think this problem sounds so much with Trump’s base?

Conant: I think there are many political opponents at its base who have been somehow wrapped in Epstein scandals over the years, just thanks to their social ties or their business ties with him. Obviously, the way Epstein is dead was very suspect in the spirit of the base. And he became all these media built around him. Books have been written, podcasts, television shows on this subject, and people have just really ended in the scandal thinking that there is much more.

Martin: Excuse me, but are people in his own administration wrapped in it? I mean, people in the sense of being part of being a thing like its director of the FBI, Kash Patel, its deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino.

Conant: Absolutely. Now, to be clear, they have called a lot of plots, it’s one of them, but then they are loaded with the FBI. And I think that the other problem here is that there is just a real mismanagement of expectations with its base with regard to what the administration is really able to deliver, in part because it has put the FBI director and the deputy director of the FBI, in part because they have promised to go to the bottom of Epstein problems.

Martin: Elon Musk has published a lot on this subject this week. Obviously, I think most people know they had a fall, but at some point [Musk] Said that if all this is a hoax, why Ghislaine Maxwell, partner of Epstein, is in prison for sex trafficking? Is Musk part of this or is he a kind of auxiliary character because it was already a great thing?

Conant: I think he and many other people accumulate at this stage. Anyone who has an ax to cringe with the president considers it as a scab where they can choose because they know that Trump has no good answers at this stage because in his mind, in the spirit of the Ministry of Justice, they have released everything on this subject that they are legally authorized to release and their hands are really attached to the future. And yet it is not enough for people like Musk and his opponents.

Martin: So before you let you go, does it have legs?

Conant: Well, we will see. I mean, nobody changes the subject better than Donald Trump. And he has a lot to say these days. That said, its base will never be satisfied with this unless they are in a way to provide more information.

Martin: Why not? Why can’t they be satisfied?

Conant: People who are so invested in an idea, in a conspiracy – you cannot convince them that they are mistaken without evidence. And the administration is struggling to provide evidence that they are mistaken.

This digital story was published by Majd al-Waheidi. The radio version was produced by Arezou Rezvani, Kity Kline and Nia Dumas.