Source: Semafor
by David Weigel
“‘Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?’ asked the president. ‘I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this.’ For some of the president’s supporters, the fate of the ‘Epstein files,’ evidence that would surely tie the world’s elites to reputation-ending sex crimes, was their first true disappointment. When a reporter tried to ask Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi some of their burning questions — specifically, whether Epstein had ever been an intelligence asset and why a minute of footage from outside his jail was missing — Trump surprised them, suggesting that this wasn’t important anymore. … It was the first leak in the dreadnought Trump built to win last year, when he managed to run on both his record as president and the theory that he, having been victimized by the intelligence establishment, would bring it down from the inside.” (07/11/25)
https://www.semafor.com/article/07/11/2025/why-maga-cant-move-on-from-the-epstein-files