President Donald Trump’s super powers as a public figure have long included the ability to redirect, evade and deny.
But the Republican’s well-worn methods of changing the subject when a tough topic stings politically are not working as his White House fends off persistent unrest from his usually loyal base about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
Trump has scolded reporters, claimed ignorance and offered distractions in an effort to quash questions about Epstein and the suspicions still swirling around the disgraced financier’s case years after his 2019 death in prison. The demand for answers has only grown.
“For a president and an administration that’s very good at controlling a narrative, this is one that’s been harder,” said Republican strategist Erin Maguire, a former Trump campaign spokeswoman.
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Unlike political crises that dogged Trump’s first term, including two impeachments and a probe into alleged campaign collusion with Russia, the people propelling the push for more transparency on Epstein have largely been his supporters, not his political foes.
Trump has fed his base with conspiracy theories for years, including the false “birther” claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump’s advisers fanned conspiracies about Epstein, too, only to declare them moot upon entering office.
That has not gone over well with the president’s right-leaning base, which has long believed the government was covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful.
“Donald Trump’s been running a Ponzi scheme based on propaganda for the better part of a decade and it’s finally catching up to him,” said Geoff Duncan, a Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia and Trump critic. “The far right element is just dug in. They’re hell bent on getting this information out.”
The White House has dismissed reporting about Trump’s ties to Epstein as “fake news,” though it has acknowledged his name appears in documents related to the Epstein case. Trump and Epstein were friends for years before falling out.
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“The only people who can’t seem to shake this story from their one-track minds are the media and Democrats,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields.
Before leaving for a trip to Scotland on Friday, the president again urged people to turn their attention elsewhere.
“People should really focus on how well the country is doing,” Trump told reporters, lamenting that scrutiny was not being given to others in Epstein’s orbit. “They don’t talk about them, they talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy.”
The art of distraction
Trump in recent weeks has employed a typical diversion playbook.
He chastised a reporter for asking about Epstein in the White House Cabinet Room. He claimed in the Oval Office that he was not paying close attention to the issue. And, with help from Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, he explosively accused Obama of treason for how he treated intelligence in 2016 about Russian interference in the US election.
On Thursday Trump took his distraction tour to the Federal Reserve, where he tussled with Chair Jerome Powell about construction costs and pressed for lower interest rates.
That, said Republican strategist Brad Todd, was more effective than focusing on Obama in 2016, which voters had already litigated by putting Trump back in office.
“The Tulsi Gabbard look backward, I think, is not the way for them to pivot,” Todd said, noting that Trump’s trip to the Fed highlighted the issue of economic affordability and taking on a Washington institution. “If I was him I’d go to the Fed every day until rates are cut.”
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Democrats have seized on Trump’s efforts to move on, sensing a political weakness for the president and divisions in the Republican Party that they can exploit while their own political stock is low in the wake of last year’s drubbing at the polls.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed most Americans think Trump’s administration is hiding information about Epstein, creating an opportunity for Democrats to press.
Trump’s supporters and many Democrats are eager to see a release of government files related to Epstein and his case, which the Justice Department initially promised to deliver.
“Yesterday was another example of the Trump folks trying to throw as much stuff against the wall to avoid the Epstein files,” Mark Warner, a Democratic US senator from Virginia, said in a post on X on Thursday about Gabbard’s accusations against Obama.
Trump allies see the administration’s efforts to change topic as a normal part of an all-out-there strategy.
“They are always going at 100 miles an hour. Every department, every cabinet secretary, everybody is out there at full speed blanketing the area with news,” Republican strategist Maguire said.
Trump has weathered tougher periods before, and his conservative base, despite its frustration over the files, is largely pleased with Trump’s work on immigration and the economy. In a July Reuters/Ipsos poll, 56% of Republican respondents favored the administration’s immigration workplace raids, while 24% were opposed and 20% unsure.
Pollster Frank Luntz noted that Trump had faced felony convictions and other criminal charges but still won re-election last year.
“We’ve been in this very same situation several times before and he has escaped every time,” Luntz said.
