9\/11 attack<\/a>, Trump always affirmed without\u00a0hesitation that he would make them public. When asked about the Epstein files however, he seemed to always qualify their release with the condition that unnamed innocent people who he seemed to be aware were on the list could be protected. This caution\u00a0can only be explained either by his knowledge that the files did in fact exist or by his awareness from personal experience that their existence was plausible.<\/p>\nI do care about the Epstein case, and in a perfect world it should get more attention than it currently is. However, the MAGA cult has been brainwashed to automatically see the media reporting on Trump\u2019s bad behavior as evidence of Trump\u2019s righteousness. I fear more attention by the media would trigger their persecution complex and override the cognitive dissonance they feel by having their \u201copen book\u201d president \u201cdeep state\u201d them. The Trump administration should focus on resigning and making way for competent people to lead the country.<\/p>\n
The most likely explanation for Trump saying we should stop talking about Epstein is that he did something illegal with Epstein that he knows all but his most loyal followers would condemn him for. The likelihood of this explanation is supported by Trump\u2019s resistance to releasing any such list and his attempts to explain away the files, saying things like, there are innocent people who would get hurt, they don\u2019t exist, the Clintons fabricated them, etc.<\/p>\n
In terms of whether MAGA will split with Trump over the Epstein issue, I think maybe some in the movement will break away, but most will stay loyal.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Samuel Barnes, Saint George, Utah<\/p>\n
I don’t care if there’s an Epstein list<\/p>\n
I don’t believe any client list existed. But I also don’t care. Epstein struck me as too wily to leave any kind of written record of his business, clients or victims. But MAGA folks love a conspiracy and this one has everything: salacious details, mysterious death, famous names and money. Lots of money.<\/p>\n
Epstein is dead. His empire crumbled. And Americans have far too much going on in the U.S. and in the world that requires our attention.<\/p>\n
I don’t agree with Trump on much, but I certainly do when it comes to his recent repeated calls for us to stop talking about Epstein. He really needs to focus on urgent matters now \u2013 flooding in Texas and elsewhere, uncontrolled wildfires in Arizona, education and immigration battles. Then there are the international problems, many of which seem to have no easy answers. But I do think we will start to see a greater divide among his supporters.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Kathleen Bryson, Globe, Arizona<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump has said we should stop talking about Epstein. What do you think? USA TODAY readers sound off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[8521,3907,35440,6890,5492,11757,5762,11765,8745,6897,6906,2438,102639,5491,5498,8724,14891,6888,7560,38716,24393,105577,2204,6889,714,7898,6887,2175,5777,5786,12,3577,391,11768,11767,38715,7670,5487,699,285,7482,26462,24392,24399,11759,1426,38712,1017,7135,5181,49,978,659,11758,11769,8520,8529],"class_list":{"0":"post-283184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-article-plus","11":"tag-biden","12":"tag-branch","13":"tag-collection","14":"tag-columnists","15":"tag-columnists-opinions","16":"tag-content","17":"tag-democratic","18":"tag-democratic-party","19":"tag-department","20":"tag-epstein","21":"tag-executive","22":"tag-executive-branch","23":"tag-fbi","24":"tag-forum","25":"tag-harris","26":"tag-image","27":"tag-image-topper","28":"tag-investigations","29":"tag-jeffrey","30":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","31":"tag-joe","32":"tag-joe-biden","33":"tag-justice","34":"tag-kamala","35":"tag-kamala-harris","36":"tag-modular","37":"tag-modular-story","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-of","40":"tag-opinion","41":"tag-opinion-collection","42":"tag-opinion-content","43":"tag-opinion-forum","44":"tag-opinions","45":"tag-party","46":"tag-plus","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-public","49":"tag-public-opinion","50":"tag-scandals","51":"tag-scandals-u0026-investigations","52":"tag-sharing","53":"tag-story","54":"tag-topper","55":"tag-u-s","56":"tag-u-s-department-of-justice","57":"tag-u0026","58":"tag-united-states","59":"tag-us","60":"tag-usa","61":"tag-usat","62":"tag-usat-content-sharing-opinion","63":"tag-violence","64":"tag-violence-u0026-abuse"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}