Transcript: Trump Fumes at Epstein Mess as Polls Reveal Big GOP Revolt
Sargent: I think maybe what we’re looking at here, Swin, is a war in MAGA between two impulses. One is the one you’re talking about there, which is the unchecked conspiracism, the really crazed desire to believe that there are these really dastardly things that Democratic elites have done, such as pedophilia. So that’s one force. But the other force is everything needs to always help Trump at all costs. And so when Trump and Vance go to the influencers and say to them, Look, guys, this is not helpful, they’re really saying prioritize the second one of those over the first one. Both of them are extremely unhealthy to the point of deep derangement. And they’re at odds with each other, which makes the whole thing even more combustible. Does that make sense?
Suebsaeng: No, totally. And look, as shambolically organized and demoralized as so much of the Democratic Party’s power bases are right now at the start of a second Trump presidency, even they are able to figure out that, OK, we need to make hay out of this. We got to keep exploiting these MAGAworld fissures as aggressively as we can. That’s why you see Hakeem Jeffries and other prominent Democratic elected officials talking about this and going hard at it and even trying to force a vote to have the Epstein files released or whatever. Obviously, Republicans on Capitol Hill ended up voting that down. I don’t think anybody here is going to take the guess that Republican lawmakers doing that is going to allay any concerns or suspicions among factors of MAGAland, that Republicans are doing this not to serve the base but to protect the dear leader Donald Trump.
Sargent: Swin, where does this all end up? Just play this out and let us know how much longer we’re going to have to endure this craziness and where it leads.
Suebsaeng: Well, no end in sight right now—but as all things with Trumpworld, no end in sight can mean stretches on for years or millennia or maybe in a couple of days something else ends up taking over. But for the time being, there is no end in sight. And one of the major reasons why there isn’t is because if Donald Trump wanted to do a better, more appropriately manicured brand management right now, you’d think that maybe he would just stop talking about for five fucking seconds. But a major reason why this keeps driving news cycles is because the literal most powerful man in the world with the American nuclear launch coats won’t shut the fuck up about this.
He keeps going before the cameras, taking the bait when reporters ask him questions, including when he’s meeting earlier on Wednesday with the leader of Bahrain. And he keeps, without anybody making him, posting to Truth Social over and over again things that make him look especially to a very conspiracy minded individual very, very guilty of something. So again, Mr. Trump, if you’re listening, you keep telling everybody to stop talking about Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, heal thyself dear leader.
