After months of trying to hush discussions on the Epstein Files, Donald Trump is suddenly calling for its release. But when a politician insists they have nothing to hide, the only reasonable response is to wonder why they’re shouting.
On his Truth Social on Monday, Trump urged House Republicans to support a bipartisan bill to release the Epstein files. “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” he wrote. It’s a blunt reversal of an administration that had until recently called the files a “hoax.” The move has surprised everyone, but has raised eyebrows on his motive, too.
For starters, Trump’s Saturday-to-Sunday pivot on the Epstein files is timed suspiciously well. Republican rebels, led publicly by Rep. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, are planning to force a floor vote via a discharge petition this week. This means that Trump was running a risk of looking obstructionist if he kept stonewalling the release of the files. So, he had to feign a sudden change of heart to clear his name.
Logically, if Trump’s objective was pure transparency, the administration could have released the documents directly. As the president, he can instruct the DoJ to release it any day, without waiting on a House maneuver. But he isn’t doing that, and it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots and understand why.
Just a day ago, Trump ordered Pam Bondi to investigate the Democratic names appearing in the Epstein files. Since an “open investigation” warrants classification of files, the move appears carefully orchestrated to force delay in releasing them. Right after that, publicly calling for releasing the files clears Trump of allegations of obstruction. So, if the files aren’t released now, the blame shifts to investigatory processes, and not him.
Secondly, Trump’s pledge of transparency in the post was accompanied by a running monologue of his administration’s economic boasts. He bragged about lowering inflation “from the highest level in History,” and claimed that his real priority is the economy. Somewhere between the lines, he manged to portray the Epstein files as non-important. But treating the case like a political nuisance show exactly how much Trump cares about getting justice for Epstein’s victims.
And then there’s the optics problem Trump can’t finesse away. The president’s name already appears in emails released by the House Oversight Committee. While a mere presence of a name does not prove criminality, the emails point strongly toward him being guilty. Trump has been awkwardly dodging questions about those emails up until now. So why is he suddenly relaxed about the full files? One user on X theorized, “Looks like someone deleted all the evidence.”
Additionally, the timeline of GOP’s stance on the files hasn’t gone unnoticed. First the documents were “on the desk,” then there was “nothing to show.” When the emails dropped, it became a “hoax,” and then “hoax” then turned into a ground for investigation. Now, it’s urgently time to “move on.” This only proves that the White House needs a better scriptwriter.
Whether the documents see the light of day now or not, the flaws in Trump’s narrative is enough for Americans to see through his lies.
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