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The Jeffrey Epstein scandal would probably be less of a political fiasco for Donald Trump if the president were able to stick to a simple, accurate and compelling defense. Alternatively, the Republican could try saying far less about the controversy, which might help keep the story off front pages.
But Trump has instead chosen the worst possible path for himself: He just keeps talking about it; his rhetoric is making matters worse; and the result is a president who, in a rather literal sense, can’t seem to help himself.
On Monday, the Republican sat alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and fielded a series of questions about the late millionaire sex offender, and each answer seemed to get progressively worse.
A possible pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell: Asked whether he’s prepared to rule out a pardon for Epstein’s convicted associate, common sense might’ve suggested that the president close that door. He did largely the opposite, telling reporters, “Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it.”
He added, “Right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it,” while talking about it.
His alleged appearances in the Epstein files: Amid recent reporting that the president received a briefing about his name appearing in the Epstein files, Trump replied, "Well, I haven’t been overly interested in it. You know, it’s a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion. I can say this: Those files were run by the worst scum on earth. They were run by [former FBI Director James] Comey. They were run by [former Attorney General Merrick] Garland. They were run by [former President Joe] Biden and all of the people that actually ran the government, including the autopen. ... They can easily put something in the files that’s a phony.”
At face value, none of this made any sense — Trump’s political foes wouldn’t have manufactured bogus evidence, inserted it into files, and then left it on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s desk — but it sounded like the sort of thing someone might say if they were genuinely afraid of potentially incriminating evidence in a group of files.
His falling out with Epstein: The explanation surrounding Trump’s relationship with Epstein has been a moving target, with some allegations that Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for being a “real creep,” while others have pointed to a falling out over a real estate deal. The president offered a third possibility on Monday, stating Epstein did something “inappropriate” by hiring people who worked for Trump.
The island invitation: As The New York Times summarized:
President Trump said on Monday that he had ‘never had the privilege’ of visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island because he had turned down an invitation from the financier. As part of a continued effort by Mr. Trump to distract, deny and deflect from his long-running relationship with Mr. Epstein, the president vigorously denied that he had ever visited Mr. Epstein’s private islands in the Caribbean, while in the same breath baselessly accusing his predecessor, former President Bill Clinton, of visiting the islands, his latest bid at conspiracy deflection.
“I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there supposedly” a number of times, Trump said, referring to locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands where Epstein allegedly trafficked underage girls for sex.
“I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island.”
There were a great many ways the Republican could’ve talked about this without using the word “privilege,” but this was the message the president chose to deliver to the world.
The Epstein scandal has become quicksand for Trump for a variety of reasons — including his own misguided rhetoric.