Some commentators I respect think the Epstein files are a distraction from more important matters and we're paying too much attention to them. Their idea of "more important matters" is probably similar to mine, and it's true that the Big Awful Bill (not to mention this administration in general) is going to do far more damage to the American people than the Epstein files.
But at the same time the Epstein files and Trump's bungling of them are performing an invaluable service to the country by driving a wedge into the MAGA coalition and scaring the hell out of GOP officeholders, especially those in the House who have to run for re-election next year.
I say "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth -- and never mind its teeth: this gift horse has legs."
President Obama should bring defamation lawsuits against anyone repeating Trump's lies with regard to Trump's Russia-gate accusations. If Trump's media lackeys want to use Russian disinformation to accuse a former President of treason, make them bring their bullshit into a courtroom. Fox settled with Dominion for $787,000,000. What is a former President's reputation worth?
I think even diehard MAGAs are appalled and enraged by the idea of super-rich men raping girls and using their dough to get away with it. Apparently, Trump raping adult women was okay, but this is an island too far.
It's got to be hard to compete with the salacious, prurient, and over-the-top nature of the Epstein story. Short of Epstein and Maxwell brewing adrenochrome kambucha, it has everything the MAGA base has fantasized about for over 5 years now. That MAGA base's moth-to-porch-light obsession with carnality is also fundamental to the Republicans' anti-trans strategy, even though of course there is nothing carnal about gender identity. I mean really, have you ever seen a group of people so consumed by what's in other people's underoos?
I think we're seeing that Republicans' sexual fetishes might be even more powerful than their racism.
Its interesting and weird that they claim the pedophile issues as their own and number one issue. We all care about that, and in truth yes it is everywhere, look at the church alone, it is just weird and I think Carrie you picked the right word: fetish. What an odd way to drive a wedge, but done. As if it is really a partisan reality or issue. I don't have the right words here, for real. I do hope we ever see those files, but doubt we will. Sickening that GM gets moved to the best prison.
So it’s the virtue signaling that they really love, isn’t it? Anything they think is objectionable, especially if it’s also sensational—that they can claim moral authority about. And it’s also very likely fantasy fodder for many of them as well, those who are unable to come to terms with their own yearnings.
I realize the value of the Epstein files, and the fact that one of MAGA’s favorite conspiracies has wrapped itself around Trump.
There are two things that bother me. One is that Trump—having tried and failed at distraction with Obama and with a veiled nuclear threat against Russia—will keep trying, and who the hell knows what really mortal threat to us he may unleash.
The second is that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked hundreds of teenage girls. These are real people whose lives have been destroyed. That certainly removes any sense of political satisfaction I may feel over this mess.
Trump even tried the threat of nuclear war against Russia and it fell flat. But how could annihilation possibly compete with potential pornography? It’s no wonder his people won’t let this go. Hell, I don’t want to let it go. But that’s mostly because I’m pretty convinced that if they dig deeply enough, and if they are candid enough (neither are likely to happen until Trump, Patel and Bondi are gone), we will see that Trump is in there somewhere having sex with underage girls. This isn’t a new allegation and it isn’t really news, but it would be great to plaster this all over the internet for his Qanon base to see.
Get his approval rating down into the low 30% range before the midterms and we might have a shot at undoing some of the massive damage he has done so far. This story may be the only way to make that happen, either by releasing all the files, or none of them (he has already botched this, perhaps irreparably). Dangling the shiny object can’t work unless the shiny object is shinier than the one people are focused on. There simply isn’t one out there short of something like Trump’s demise, since even releasing his medical information had no effect.
The “man of few moves” is about out of them. Focus may shift, (football, natural disaster, celeb scandal), but nothing within his control will work, and Mr. “Look at me!” Has no one but himself to blame.
"Trump even tried the threat of nuclear war against Russia and it fell flat." Maybe I'm just weird, but to me that sounds pretty frightening. Trump is so unhinged, who knows what he might end up doing, purely on impulse? I should hope that the idea of everyone and all their loved ones dying a horrible death would do a bit more than 'fall flat"!
Trump is a coward. He hid in the WH bunker when UNARMED protesters got close. He would never do anything more than bluster unless he was assured there would be no consequence to him or his stuff. This is likely why it fell flat.
It's like a surprise birthday present from someone who always gives me crap presents for my birthday. I refuse to think it is something cool, so when I unwrap it I won't be disappointed, because I'm always disappointed.
This is no different than any other instance of Trump metaphorically shooting some random person on 5th avenue. There is no there there, especially there in the Epstein files, even if there is something in there somewhere.
This story is milquetoast until proven sirloin. Assuming this to be the case is how I protect my psyche.
Could it be that the Obama conspiracy story fell flat for the simple reason that people remember Clinton conceding the election and Trump taking office in 2017 without opposition…the only question at the time being whether Trump exaggerated the crowd size at his inauguration? I mean, to have a “coup,” you’ve got to have someone at least trying to remove the head of state.
Sorry Dan, who cares about engaging w the obstinate uncle at some special dinner. That ain’t where I spend an ounce of energy fighting back or trying to reason. How ineffective. Plenty to do elsewhere.
It is encouraging to hear the MAGAverse isn’t buying this one. Let’s hope the Epstein files continue to drive a wedge into their pickled brains.
In the pro-democracy camp, though, can we please stop calling Trump a “master communicator”? I first saw Peter Baker do this in the NYT and have seen other respected journalists say it, too. Trump is a master liar, a master manipulator, a master con-man, and he’s pretty well mastering the authoritarian playbook. Still, with all the haphazard garbage he spews on the reg, anyone who calls him a master communicator is, at best, lazy and, at worst, Trumpwashing and normalizing a corrupt and criminal demagogue.
Clearly, the article’s aim isn’t to legitimize or indulge competing conspiracies, but to illustrate how President Trump’s habitual use of conspiracy theories—both as deflection and political strategy—has destabilized public discourse.
Rather than “playing along,” the author critiques Trump’s tactic of flooding the media environment with sensational claims, showing how this clouds accountability and distracts from serious issues like the Epstein case, global conflicts, or economic policy. The piece contextualizes Trump’s behavior within a broader historical framework to underscore how unusual—and corrosive—it is for a sitting president to propagate unsubstantiated allegations, not just absorb them. This corrosion is aimed directly st the voting public, as it always is. To so miss the point and rework this into an attack on the reporter is to add a helping hand in Trump’s work.
Far from amplifying conspiracy culture, the article warns about its normalization at the highest levels of power and the distortion it brings to the political process.
Agreed, but the problem with them is their headline editors, whose choices often obscure, confuse, or even contradict what is in the actual report. They are masters at this, up there with the Fox News chyron creators.
Headlines are written to attract eyeballs. The fact that they’re often misleading is a by-product. Hardly a deliberate attempt to obscure or confuse the following story. I think you are confusing cunning with ineptitude.
No one is saying their headline writers are inept. Cunning is plenty bad when it comes to misleading readers in this era of misinformation with trust in media circling the drain.
Do people really believe that headline writers—for whatever reason—set out to mislead readers about the story those readers are about to read? I am not even gonna ask the point of doing that.
Some commentators I respect think the Epstein files are a distraction from more important matters and we're paying too much attention to them. Their idea of "more important matters" is probably similar to mine, and it's true that the Big Awful Bill (not to mention this administration in general) is going to do far more damage to the American people than the Epstein files.
But at the same time the Epstein files and Trump's bungling of them are performing an invaluable service to the country by driving a wedge into the MAGA coalition and scaring the hell out of GOP officeholders, especially those in the House who have to run for re-election next year.
I say "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth -- and never mind its teeth: this gift horse has legs."
President Obama should bring defamation lawsuits against anyone repeating Trump's lies with regard to Trump's Russia-gate accusations. If Trump's media lackeys want to use Russian disinformation to accuse a former President of treason, make them bring their bullshit into a courtroom. Fox settled with Dominion for $787,000,000. What is a former President's reputation worth?
Why drive media engagement away from Epstein and Maxwell? Isn't that what Trump&Co are trying to do?
I think it was $787 million.
Thank you for pointing that out.
Really appreciate your takes, Dan.
I wonder if the people backing Trump (truth is he didn’t get here on his own) are done with him now that they got their tax breaks?
I think even diehard MAGAs are appalled and enraged by the idea of super-rich men raping girls and using their dough to get away with it. Apparently, Trump raping adult women was okay, but this is an island too far.
It's got to be hard to compete with the salacious, prurient, and over-the-top nature of the Epstein story. Short of Epstein and Maxwell brewing adrenochrome kambucha, it has everything the MAGA base has fantasized about for over 5 years now. That MAGA base's moth-to-porch-light obsession with carnality is also fundamental to the Republicans' anti-trans strategy, even though of course there is nothing carnal about gender identity. I mean really, have you ever seen a group of people so consumed by what's in other people's underoos?
I think we're seeing that Republicans' sexual fetishes might be even more powerful than their racism.
Its interesting and weird that they claim the pedophile issues as their own and number one issue. We all care about that, and in truth yes it is everywhere, look at the church alone, it is just weird and I think Carrie you picked the right word: fetish. What an odd way to drive a wedge, but done. As if it is really a partisan reality or issue. I don't have the right words here, for real. I do hope we ever see those files, but doubt we will. Sickening that GM gets moved to the best prison.
So it’s the virtue signaling that they really love, isn’t it? Anything they think is objectionable, especially if it’s also sensational—that they can claim moral authority about. And it’s also very likely fantasy fodder for many of them as well, those who are unable to come to terms with their own yearnings.
I realize the value of the Epstein files, and the fact that one of MAGA’s favorite conspiracies has wrapped itself around Trump.
There are two things that bother me. One is that Trump—having tried and failed at distraction with Obama and with a veiled nuclear threat against Russia—will keep trying, and who the hell knows what really mortal threat to us he may unleash.
The second is that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked hundreds of teenage girls. These are real people whose lives have been destroyed. That certainly removes any sense of political satisfaction I may feel over this mess.
Trump even tried the threat of nuclear war against Russia and it fell flat. But how could annihilation possibly compete with potential pornography? It’s no wonder his people won’t let this go. Hell, I don’t want to let it go. But that’s mostly because I’m pretty convinced that if they dig deeply enough, and if they are candid enough (neither are likely to happen until Trump, Patel and Bondi are gone), we will see that Trump is in there somewhere having sex with underage girls. This isn’t a new allegation and it isn’t really news, but it would be great to plaster this all over the internet for his Qanon base to see.
Get his approval rating down into the low 30% range before the midterms and we might have a shot at undoing some of the massive damage he has done so far. This story may be the only way to make that happen, either by releasing all the files, or none of them (he has already botched this, perhaps irreparably). Dangling the shiny object can’t work unless the shiny object is shinier than the one people are focused on. There simply isn’t one out there short of something like Trump’s demise, since even releasing his medical information had no effect.
The “man of few moves” is about out of them. Focus may shift, (football, natural disaster, celeb scandal), but nothing within his control will work, and Mr. “Look at me!” Has no one but himself to blame.
"Trump even tried the threat of nuclear war against Russia and it fell flat." Maybe I'm just weird, but to me that sounds pretty frightening. Trump is so unhinged, who knows what he might end up doing, purely on impulse? I should hope that the idea of everyone and all their loved ones dying a horrible death would do a bit more than 'fall flat"!
Trump is a coward. He hid in the WH bunker when UNARMED protesters got close. He would never do anything more than bluster unless he was assured there would be no consequence to him or his stuff. This is likely why it fell flat.
It's like a surprise birthday present from someone who always gives me crap presents for my birthday. I refuse to think it is something cool, so when I unwrap it I won't be disappointed, because I'm always disappointed.
This is no different than any other instance of Trump metaphorically shooting some random person on 5th avenue. There is no there there, especially there in the Epstein files, even if there is something in there somewhere.
This story is milquetoast until proven sirloin. Assuming this to be the case is how I protect my psyche.
Could it be that the Obama conspiracy story fell flat for the simple reason that people remember Clinton conceding the election and Trump taking office in 2017 without opposition…the only question at the time being whether Trump exaggerated the crowd size at his inauguration? I mean, to have a “coup,” you’ve got to have someone at least trying to remove the head of state.
Sorry Dan, who cares about engaging w the obstinate uncle at some special dinner. That ain’t where I spend an ounce of energy fighting back or trying to reason. How ineffective. Plenty to do elsewhere.
No more hiding in your distractions, no more safe-space in your lies
We’ll keep pounding these drums till the last redaction dies
🗄️ Release the Epstein files.
🗄️ Release the Epstein files.
🗄️ Release the Epstein files.
🗄️ Release the damn files.
https://www.movements.rocks/p/release-the-epstein-files-lyrics
It is encouraging to hear the MAGAverse isn’t buying this one. Let’s hope the Epstein files continue to drive a wedge into their pickled brains.
In the pro-democracy camp, though, can we please stop calling Trump a “master communicator”? I first saw Peter Baker do this in the NYT and have seen other respected journalists say it, too. Trump is a master liar, a master manipulator, a master con-man, and he’s pretty well mastering the authoritarian playbook. Still, with all the haphazard garbage he spews on the reg, anyone who calls him a master communicator is, at best, lazy and, at worst, Trumpwashing and normalizing a corrupt and criminal demagogue.
The one guy who played along, naturally, was Peter Baker, with his "competing conspiracies" front-pager. Exactly what Trump wanted. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/us/politics/trump-epstein-obama-conspiracies.html
A clear example of Times Derangement Syndrome.
Clearly, the article’s aim isn’t to legitimize or indulge competing conspiracies, but to illustrate how President Trump’s habitual use of conspiracy theories—both as deflection and political strategy—has destabilized public discourse.
Rather than “playing along,” the author critiques Trump’s tactic of flooding the media environment with sensational claims, showing how this clouds accountability and distracts from serious issues like the Epstein case, global conflicts, or economic policy. The piece contextualizes Trump’s behavior within a broader historical framework to underscore how unusual—and corrosive—it is for a sitting president to propagate unsubstantiated allegations, not just absorb them. This corrosion is aimed directly st the voting public, as it always is. To so miss the point and rework this into an attack on the reporter is to add a helping hand in Trump’s work.
Far from amplifying conspiracy culture, the article warns about its normalization at the highest levels of power and the distortion it brings to the political process.
Agreed, but the problem with them is their headline editors, whose choices often obscure, confuse, or even contradict what is in the actual report. They are masters at this, up there with the Fox News chyron creators.
Headlines are written to attract eyeballs. The fact that they’re often misleading is a by-product. Hardly a deliberate attempt to obscure or confuse the following story. I think you are confusing cunning with ineptitude.
No one is saying their headline writers are inept. Cunning is plenty bad when it comes to misleading readers in this era of misinformation with trust in media circling the drain.
Do people really believe that headline writers—for whatever reason—set out to mislead readers about the story those readers are about to read? I am not even gonna ask the point of doing that.
I’d like to believe that, but I have zero faith in Mr. Kahn and his ilk. Maybe it’s a combination of both.