Donald Trump’s Epstein backlash: ‘A serious threat to his position as leader’
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The Epstein files continue to cause havoc for Donald Trump, who has filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street journal after they released a story about Trump’s controversial birthday message to the financier.
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In brief:
- Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for $20 billion after they reported he sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday message with explicit imagery and suggestive text, which Trump denies and calls "fake."
- MAGA supporters are turning against Trump because they expected his administration to expose Epstein's secrets after encouraging conspiracy theories during his campaign, but Attorney General Pam Bondi recently said there's "nothing to see."
- Trump’s usually loyal base isn't following his lead to drop the story, potentially creating opportunities for other MAGA figures to challenge his authority, The News Agents say.
What’s the story?
Donald Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal for $20 billion over claims he sent Jeffrey Epstein a sexualised birthday card, on which he allegedly used his own signature to represent the pubic hair of a naked woman.
The paper reports that Trump wrote Epstein a message for his 50th birthday that "contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker".
He allegedly signed his name below her waist, resembling pubic hair, and wrote "A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret."
Trump, who denies writing the message, says the publication has violated libel laws and in response, has filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal's parent company Dow Jones and its owner Rupert Murdoch.
He called the note “fake,” and said; "These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures."
“For all Trump's legal activity in the past, this is unprecedented,” Emily Maitlis says on The News Agents.
“This is the first time a sitting president has ever tried to sue the press.”
Why has Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal?
Why is Trump facing backlash from MAGA supporters?
There’s been intense criticism of how Trump has handled - or not handled - the Epstein case, particularly from his usual loyalist MAGA supporters.
When Trump was campaigning for a second term at the presidency, he and his MAGA circle used the public interest in the Epstein case in their favour.
They regularly whipped up conspiracy theories about the life and death of the financier, and “told people there were a lot of unanswered questions around what happened to Epstein,” Emily explains.
This was only further encouraged when Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney General, told Fox News she had a file on Epstein ready to go, leading Trump supporters to believe that his administration would be the one to unearth the secrets surrounding Epstein and the people involved in his crimes.
But last month, Trump and Bondi suddenly had a change of heart, telling the public that there was nothing to see.
“The MAGA influencers that bought into this idea that they were going to hear everything about Epstein are up in arms. They're furious. They will not go away because they think that stuff is being concealed,” Emily says.
While some of the conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein are ludicrous, she adds, others pose valid questions about what he did, and whether there were other perpetrators involved in his crimes that have so far gotten away with it.
“These are valuable questions to be asking,” Emily says.
“Trump is trying to put a lid on something now to make it go away, when he's fired the flames and people genuinely want to find out what they know.”
In response to the backlash, Trump has since put the onus on releasing parts of the Epstein files back onto Bondi, telling her to share "whatever she thinks is credible".
What’s The News Agents’ take?
“The public and MAGA-land are saying we need to see the thousands of documents of other clients that Jeffrey Epstein had - and it looks like the reason that Donald Trump doesn't want this stuff to come out, is because he may be implicated, as per the Wall Street Journal article,” Jon Sopel explains.
But no matter how many times Trump tries to tell his supporters that there’s ‘nothing to see here’, the MAGA-base isn’t buying it.
“Normally, if Trump tells his supporters to look over there, they look,” Emily says.
“But this time, no one is budging from the story itself.”
This has reportedly left Trump feeling ‘betrayed’ by his base, which he feels he built.
“Trump feels he has made these people. He has given Maga influencers their bread and butter; their podcasts, their columns.
“Now they are essentially unleashed, and they're not doing his bidding anymore,” she says.
Emily suspects that other leading figures in MAGA-world might view the fracture between Trump and his supporters as an opportunity to come forward, claiming they will be the one to properly handle the Epstein storm, in an effort to win over the MAGA base and fulfill their own political ambitions.
“The Maga movement is not happy with the answers that Donald Trump is giving,” Jon says.
“I think this represents a really serious threat to his position as the leader of this movement that he gave birth to.”
Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.
