First, he said the late sex-trafficking pervert Jeffrey Epstein was “amazing.” He “wasn’t a fan” back then.
First, he wanted a “full investigation.” Back then it was nothing more than a “hoax” and a “scam.”
Donald Trump turn 180 degrees Epstein has been a saga over the years of self-preservation, useful distraction and false appeasement as the base he trained to demand answers refused to let it go.
Now that the government has reopened its doors and Congress has returned to work, the matter has finally come to an end.
A group of House Republicans led by Rep. Thomas Massie is making good on promises to vote on legislation that would force the Justice Department to release all of Epstein's files, but Attorney General Pam Bondi has so far refused to do so, presumably at Trump's own request.
Massie received some help, and from some of Trump's most loyal supporters. Reps. Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene said they would vote to vacate. And they I'm not hiding from their decisions.
“I truly believe this is the right thing to do, not only for the victims, but for the country,” Greene said Wednesday. “Americans deserve transparency.”
Said Mace: “I stand with all survivors…Epstein will have your voice, too.”
The vote will take place next week, but it's not a fait accompli that we'll all finally be able to see everything that's in those files, from the potentially damning client list to the details of his prison suicide. After the House votes, the Senate will have to vote on the release, and then the president – who is now calling the investigation a hoax – will have to sign the legislation.
Massie has some very important advice and harsh words for Republicans who are considering voting Trump's way to keep the files secret.
“I would remind my colleagues that this vote will be on your record longer than Trump will be president. And what will you do in 2028 and 2030 when you're in a debate with either a Republican or a Democrat and they say, 'How can we trust you?' You covered up a pedophile back in 2025.”
Republicans will have to answer for countless acts of cowardice, from acquitting Trump of impeachable offenses to defending the events of January 6th. I believe that history will judge them correctly and harshly.
But this may be the most dangerous of all. Who wants to spend the rest of their career explaining why they fought so hard to protect a convicted pedophile and all his associates just because their beloved president—a criminal himself—may have been involved in the process?
Massey believes many others will see the stakes the same way. According to Politico“Senior Republicans privately believe dozens of Republicans, perhaps 100 or more, will vote for him.”
The latest batch of Epstein emails, unexpectedly released by House Democrats and Republicans this week, is sure to give them an extra boost if they need it. Epstein in them boasts that he knew how “dirty Donald was” and describes one woman as his “20-year-old girlfriend in '93 who I gave to Donald two years later.” He also says Trump “spent hours at my house” with someone the redacted documents refer to simply as the “victim” and that “of course [Trump] knew about the girls.
Trump replied predictable, with projections and veiled threats.
“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein hoax again because they will do everything they can to distract from how poorly they handled the shutdown and so many other issues. Only a very bad or stupid Republican would fall into this trap,” he wrote on Truth Social.
He also called Republican lawmakers like Boebert to try to pressure them not to vote for the release.
If this were just a meaningless hoax, Trump wouldn't care if the files were made public. He wouldn't spend years coming up with dark conspiracy theories about these files only to suddenly come to the conclusion that there was nothing in them. He would not switch from supporting a “full investigation” to obstructing it. He would not allow convicted Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to be transferred to a higher security prison after she “testified” to one of Trump's favorite lawyers that Trump had done nothing wrong. He wouldn't have to call legislators to change their votes. He wouldn't have to make threatening posts on social media.
And now it feels like the walls are closing in. It's not just Democrats who are pushing for transparency, but Republicans as well. And his MAGA base is actually clamoring for it. How long can Teflon Don withstand calls coming from inside the house?
