Trump has been fighting the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files for months.
I have no idea what made him change his mind, because he was very much in favor of just such a release when he was campaigning in 2024.
Democrats have since flipped the script, releasing select files to make Trump look bad, so the president now says he supports a release of the files in full.
When you take things out of context, you can pretty much make them say whatever you want them to.
To that point, Democrats cherry-picked email communications to make it look like Trump was partaking in the nefarious activities for which Epstein has long been known.
This was a dastardly strategy in which previously released emails were redacted to make them appear to be a “bombshell” release of new evidence, when that was not at all the case.
For instance, in one of the emails at issue, Epstein wrote, "I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is trump. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned."
When Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) issued their discharge petition to force a document release, they had exactly enough support to get the measure passed once a Democrat was sworn in who had won a special election in Arizona.
Trump appeared to panic, calling for a meeting with his key players and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in the White House Situation Room, reportedly to discuss the files.
Boebert was one of only a handful of Republicans who were supporting the release, and it appeared that Trump wanted her to change her vote in order to block the petition from passing.
The congresswoman, however, did not change her mind, but she did post, "I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people."
I reported on this last week, and my recommendation to the Trump administration was to release the files, in full, then show the American people how dishonest Democrats have been about all of this.
Someone finally got into Trump’s ear on the topic, and the president flipped his stance, writing, "As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat 'Shutdown.'"
After saying the House Oversight Committee could have whatever it wanted on this front, he added, "All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, ‘Affordability’ (where we are winning BIG!), our Victory on reducing Inflation from the highest level in History to practically nothing, bringing down prices for the American People, delivering Historic Tax Cuts, gaining Trillions of Dollars of Investment into America (A RECORD!), the rebuilding of our Military, securing our Border, deporting Criminal Illegal Aliens, ending Men in Women’s Sports, stopping Transgender for Everyone, and so much more!"
I think this was the best possible thing that Trump could have done here. I don’t know who he was protecting or why, but he could not afford to allow Democrats to use this against him any longer. Hopefully, this will put this nonsense behind us, and as Trump stated, we can get the party back on point again.
