F**king Mondays: THE EPSTEIN FILES! THE EPSTEIN FILES!

It's that time of the week again!

(Note from Ben: Apologies for this coming late, I’m still traveling!)

Welcome to the latest “F**king Mondays” edition! In the round up today:

THE EPSTEIN FILES! THE EPSTEIN FILES!

The allure of Donald Trump for many Republicans was that he was a hand grenade they could lob against the so-called ‘Deep State’. Trump, they believed, was sent by God to rescue America from a cabal of globalist Jews pedophiles who were harvesting children to control the world. Or something like that.

When he got into power, Trump would expose the Deep State and set America on a path towards a new, golden era where everyone would be rich and Democrats would be thrown in jail for their crimes against humanity.

Unfortunately for the true MAGA believers, this narrative is now falling apart in real time. Here’s a brief outline of what has happened over the past few days:

• A recent Justice Department memo concluded Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and had no list of powerful co-conspirators. The wording is explicit: “This systematic review revealed no incriminating “client list.” There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

• This directly contradicts conspiracy theories pushed by Trump allies.

• The memo has enraged MAGA supporters, who feel betrayed after years of promises about “bombshell” Epstein revelations.

• For the first time, Trump is defending an official government narrative that clashes with his movement’s beliefs. This is testing his influence over MAGA.

• FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino were confronted over internal leaks; Bongino is considering resignation and missed work last Friday.

• Attorney General Pam Bondi, who repeatedly teased Epstein revelations, is now the focus of MAGA anger; critics accuse her of misleading the base. Bondi and Bongino have reportedly been at war over the handling of the alleged files with Bongino pushing for more info to be released.

• Trump defended Bondi publicly and privately, including a Truth Social post and personal calls to MAGA influencers urging them to back off.

• Trump tried to shift blame to Democrats and downplayed Epstein’s significance, but his base remains skeptical.

• Elon Musk, who accused Trump of being on the files, is continuing to push for their release.

Trump’s post on Truth/Social contained perhaps the most revealing tell about the files and their existence:

This is an explicit admission that the files do in fact exist, and the DoJ is lying to the American public.

So should we believe Trump’s accidental revelation, or the Department of Justice? Given Trump is an idiot and the DoJ is filled with corrupt Trump stooges, it is impossible to tell. Either way, this is a classic Donald Trump disaster created entirely by Donald Trump.

The president spent years fomenting conspiracy theories and throwing red meat to QAnon lunatics responsible for the Epstein hysteria. They expected him to release the files, and now a) he won’t, and b) he might even be on them (if they exist).

The Democrats seem to have finally figured out how to take advantage of Trump’s preternatural ability to self-immolate, and have began calling for a Congressional action to force the administration to release them.

How does this play out? This probably won’t be fatal (what is with Trump), but there are no good options for the president. Trump is not going to allow the DoJ to release anything damaging to him, and now that the official position is that the files don’t exist, he has to maintain the story no matter how much pressure is put on him. Republicans control Congress, so he can bully them into killing any attempt at oversight, but the conspiracy remains. If Elon Musk, a small minority of MAGA, and the Democrats believe something is fishy, this is could drag on for many months.

More than that, it is another sign that all is not well in Trump world. His “boys and gals” are fighting each other, his base does not know who to believe, and Trump’s ability to control the narrative is collapsing. This is not a happy White House, and as we saw in the first Trump term, it will only get worse.

Ukraine is our ally again?

I’ve been accused of having Trump Derangement Syndrome by several MAGA supporting friends, so this positive story about the president is for them. From the New York Times:

President Trump said on Monday that he would help Europe speed more weapons to Ukraine and warned Russia that if it did not agree to a peace deal within 50 days, he would impose a new round of punishing sanctions.

The announcement comes as Mr. Trump carries out a remarkable shift in tone — if not in practice — on the war in Ukraine from his first months in office, when he looked to leverage his personal relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to end the war.

“He’s fooled a lot of people,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin, who launched an unprovoked full invasion on Ukraine in 2022 and escalated attacks amid peace negotiations this year, even as Mr. Trump tried to bring an end to the fighting.

“He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden — he didn’t fool me,” Mr. Trump said, seemingly sensitive to the perception that he was changing his tune on the Russian president.

Speaking from the Oval Office, where he met with the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte​, Mr. Trump said that a range of artillery would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield,” in a deal brokered by Mr. Rutte and European leaders. Under the deal, the United States would sell Patriot air defense missiles to NATO members, which would then supply them to Ukraine.

I have no idea whether Trump’s reversal on Ukraine will last (I suspect it won’t), but this is excellent news for Ukraine while it does.

Russia is amping up the pressure on Ukraine because it appears to believe that Ukraine is on the verge of collapse. While few serious military analysts outside of the Kremlin think this is on the case, Ukraine is taking very serious losses as Russia continues to ramp up its aerial assault, so it needs all the help it can get.

So credit to Donald Trump for doing the right thing. For now.

“Free Speech” Republicans

Back to my Trump Derangement Syndrome, how on earth do so-called “free speech” Republicans justify this?:

First of all, the judge in E. Jean Carroll’s civil case against Trump explicitly stated that Trump was found guilty of raping her in a New York Department store in 1996. As the Washington Post reported:

Despite Carroll’s claims that Trump had raped her, they noted, the jury stopped short of saying he committed that particular offense. Instead, jurors opted for a second option: sexual abuse.

“This was a rape claim, this was a rape case all along, and the jury rejected that — made other findings,” his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said outside the courthouse.

A judge has now clarified that this is basically a legal distinction without a real-world difference. He says that what the jury found Trump did was in fact rape, as commonly understood.

So when AOC says Trump raped a woman, she’s not speculating. She’s stating a fact — one affirmed by a judge. Why should she be censored for that?

Let’s not forget: Trump was elected in part because he supposedly stood for free speech. Now, it seems the First Amendment only applies when he’s not the target.

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