A long article by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan published in the New York Times on June 10 points to a political vulnerability that threatens the Trump presidency. Under the headline “Inside the White House Freakout Over the Epstein Files,” the reporters document how the efforts of top White House officials to put an end to the damage caused by the release of the Epstein files have, thus far, failed to “make Jeffrey Epstein disappear.”
The Haberman-Swan article recounts a meeting of top Trump aides in the White House Situation Room in July 2025 to bury the Epstein story. What they discovered is that the Trump base was turning against his presidency, due in part to how they were handling the Epstein controversy. They concluded that, in the words of Haberman and Swan, “Trump’s old tricks of deflection and denial weren’t working,” and that applying his usual tactics could not “make Jeffrey Epstein disappear.” The article also covers Vice President JD Vance’s repeated push to release all the files “as soon as possible”—"even the unsubstantiated allegations and anecdotes about Trump”—since Congress would force them out eventually and voluntary release would at least earn credit for transparency. He was overruled: Trump, the reporters write, “had no interest in releasing anything.” The report makes clear that the Epstein case remains a major problem for Trump.
Separately, a Trump loyalist told me he is concerned that the Epstein crisis, in combination with the failure to force acceptance by Iran of U.S. terms to end the war, will “doom his presidency” and lead to a major victory by the Democrats in the midterm elections, and the 2028 presidential campaign.
The source told me that rumors about the still-unreleased Epstein documents are being used to explain why the President remains unwilling to break with Netanyahu in the Middle East. The question being effectively raised by American Firsters unhappy with this is, “What did Epstein have on Trump which keeps him in line?” He added that these suspicions are fed by the military and defense benefits given to Israel under Section 224 of the NDAA 2027, which he interprets as a product of the Epstein Class goal of strengthening Israel’s position as the number 1 U.S. strategic ally. Further, he said, this means that U.S. defense spending will serve to prop up the bubble in the Tech and AI sector.
He concluded that he suspects a deal will be reached between Congressional Democrats and Republicans which will favor the status quo, as neither party wishes to risk disrupting the flow of funds to their campaigns from Zionist neocons.
The source gave Trump this advice: declassify and release all the files, and admit he was friends with Epstein, as were most of his Democratic opponents, who also take money from scoundrels, because that’s politics! It hurts Trump more to appear to be withholding files, than by releasing them. He survived Stormy Daniels story and “grab ‘em by the ___” story, so he should also survive this.
