Bait and switch?
Well that was easy. Too easy. Donald Trump is feeling like a caged animal after being forced to concede on the release of the Epstein Files.
Republicans, starting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, folded like cheap suits after getting the word from Trump that “I DON’T CARE” if they voted to release the trove of documents.
But as always, he lied. Just look at how he has lashed out at women journalists in the days leading to his tactical retreat. And make no mistake, that’s all that it is.
Trump’s love-hate relationship with journalists is well known. He craves the attention so he deigns to meet with reporters, even while labeling them “fake news” and “enemies of the people.”
That’s why he and his Propaganda Minister Karoline Leavitt seized control of the White House press corps and installed right wing sycophants in place of many traditional outlets like the Associated Press in pools that cover the Oval Office and Air Force One.
But he hasn’t been able to oust them totally, especially women. And guess who took the brunt of his anger as his gambit to consign the Epstein Files to the deepest recesses of the Department of Injustice failed in the wake of a rare bipartisan effort.
Trump, who has claimed he is 6-foot-3 and weighs 215 pounds — just like some professional athletes — has a body mass index that has fluctuated between overweight and obese.
That didn’t stop him from cutting off a woman journalist on Air Force One as she was asking him about the files:
“Quiet!” the president said. “Quiet, piggy.”
He escalated his attack Tuesday in an availability with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a man known in some quarters as Crown Prince Bone Saw for what the CIA assessed was his role in the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist living in exile in the United States and writing for the Washington Post:
In response to a question directed at bin Salman by ABC News White House correspondent Mary Bruce, Trump unleashed this stream of bile:
“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” later referring to her query as “a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.”
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
Things happen. Let that sink it.
Sorry Wannabee Editor Trump, the question was neither horrible, insubordinate nor terrible. It’s called journalism, especially directed at someone sitting in the Oval Office who Trump’s own CIA suggested ordered Khashoggi’s brutal murder.
While Trump’s recent behavior strongly suggests deteriorating physical and mental health he still has the capacity to plot and scheme when it comes to protecting his most important constituent — himself.
Seeing the cards stacked against him when even stalwart MAGAt Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert wouldn’t stop the House vote, his nod of approval produced a nearly unanimous vote to order DOJ to release the files in their possession.
Why? Because as usual it’s a safe bet he has figured out how to construct a new stonewall. The measure has enough loopholes to drive a Tesla Cybertruck through.
Start from the fact that Trump could have ordered the release in full at any time. His refusal — and declaration that the issue is a Democratic “hoax” — is part of his pattern to lie when the facts are against him.
Add in that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel infamously declared there was no there there after ordering FBI agents to go through and find Trump’s name.
The measure allows exemptions to redact names to protect personal privacy or national security. What’s a bigger threat to national security, Trump’s acolytes surely believe, than the President of the United States being caught in a sex trafficking scheme that likely ensnared hundreds of men?
If that’s too conspiratorial for you, there’s the issue hiding in plain sight: a provision that allows documents to be withheld if it would have an effect on an ongoing criminal investigation.
Like the one Trump ordered Bondi to launch last week. Targeting only Democrats like former President Bill Clinton and now disgraced ex-Harvard President Larry Summers.
Trump defenders have long complained that if there was anything incriminating in the files former President Joe Biden would have released them. That fails to take into account that unlike Trump, Biden has a respect for the rule of law.
And until the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Epstein Procurer-in-Chief Ghislaine Maxwell last month, there was an open criminal case.
DOJ has 30 days under the law Trump has promised to sign to prepare the documents for release. Anyone want to guess what will be excluded after the FBI has had all this time to redact Trump references or make national security claims?
Or just hold all of them up under the guise of investigating Democrats.
The saga is far from over. And key players going forward will be the brave women survivors who suffered the abuse — physical and mental — from men who did not think they should be believed. Women like Haley Robson:
“And to the president of the United States of America, who is not here today, I want to send a clear message to you. While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is. So with that being said, I want to relay this message to you: I am traumatized. I am not stupid.”
Believe the women, whether Epstein survivors or journalists willing to stand up to Trump.