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XPost: sac.politics, or.politics

If you listened to the rest of the media — both mainstream and social
media — you would think Donald Trump was on the skids, that MAGA was at
last turning on the president over the so-called Epstein files.

But nothing could be further from the truth, according to polling that the president crowed about over the weekend and, also, according to history.
Every single time his enemies count him out, Trump roars back with a
vengeance.

The latest effort last week to try to smear him as a sexual deviant and
damage his marriage by tying him to child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein is
a case in point.

The Wall Street Journal story Thursday was tame by comparison to the lurid rumors and wishful thinking that ripped through Washington, DC, and newly anti-Trump Elon Musk’s X all week. The story claimed Trump had contributed
a letter to a leather-bound book created for Epstein’s 50th birthday in
2003 by the pervert financier’s gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell.

The typewritten letter reportedly involved an imaginary conversation
between Trump and Epstein that included the lines “Enigmas never age” and “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

In its description of the letter, which it did not publish, the WSJ said
there was also a doodle of a naked woman and Trump’s signature. Trump
denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, calling it “FAKE,”
before launching a $10 billion libel action.

Trump said: “These are not my words, not the way I talk.”

Ditched ‘creep’ long ago
I can’t express my own views about the merits or otherwise of the story
for legal reasons since The Post and the WSJ share the same parent
company.

But I can say it’s a nothingburger. So what if Trump wrote the letter? The date is 2003, five years before Epstein was convicted of prostituting a
child and was registered as a sex offender, before the world found out
what a monster he really was.

It’s no secret that Trump was chummy with Epstein in his heyday in
Manhattan and Palm Beach, when the late pervert was a social-climbing
financier throwing star-studded parties. Epstein was a fixture of elite
East Coast social circles in the 1990s. It would be strange if Trump
didn’t know him.

But the saga shows Trump in a good light because, years before Epstein’s
2008 arrest and sweetheart plea deal, Trump banned him from his Mar-a-Lago
club “for being a creep,” says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

According to legal filings and a 2020 book by lawyer Bradley Edwards, who represented several Epstein victims, Trump threw out Epstein around 2004,
for sexually assaulting the daughter of a friend and Mar-a-Lago member.

The New York Times claims Trump and Epstein also fell out over business
around the same time when they competed to buy a house in Palm Beach,
forcing up the price and annoying Trump.

Either way, there is no dispute that Trump cut ties with Epstein more than
20 years ago, which distinguishes him from other high-flying Epstein pals,
such as Prince Andrew, former bank CEO Jes Staley and Bill Gates, who kept
up the association even after Epstein was convicted.

It was during Trump’s first presidency that federal prosecutors went after Epstein again, charging him in July 2019 with sex trafficking and
conspiracy to traffic minors for sex. One of the main prosecutors was none other than Maurene Comey, the daughter of notorious FBI Director James
Comey, whom Trump had sacked two years earlier. James Comey is now in the crosshairs of the FBI, along with former CIA Director John Brennan, after current CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred them for criminal
investigation two weeks ago over freshly declassified evidence that
highlights their roles in the Russia collusion hoax.

Maurene Comey was fired Wednesday, one day before the WSJ story was
published, and one day after the White House was alerted to the story. She
told colleagues in an email that her ouster was “unexpected” and unexplained.

Comey was also the lead prosecutor of Maxwell in 2021 over her role in Epstein’s sex trafficking. According to the WSJ, the “birthday book” Maxwell compiled was in the files examined by the DOJ during the
investigations of Epstein and Maxwell.

There is no indication of anything more than a circumstantial link between Comey’s ouster and the WSJ story, but the timing is intriguing.

Like everything else with Epstein, people are inclined to see links where
there are none.

After the WSJ story broke Thursday, Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi
to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony, subject to court approval,” that was gathered by New York federal prosecutors in 2019.

But just because people associated with Epstein doesn’t make them
complicit in his crimes. The DOJ and FBI have said there is no “Epstein client list,” as in a list of men to whom he pimped out underage girls.

What does exist is Epstein’s “little black book,” bulging with 1,971 names, uncovered in 2009 when his butler tried to sell it. It has been the subject of intense reporting, but you can’t judge the names guilty just because Epstein had their numbers.

“There are a lot of names associated with Epstein that had nothing to do
with Epstein’s conduct,” broadcaster Bill O’Reilly said last week, quoting
Trump. “They maybe had lunch with him or maybe had some correspondence.

“If that name gets out, those people are destroyed — because there’s not going to be any context. The media doesn’t care about context — so you can’t do that.”

Many of the now-adult victims of Epstein were cheated of their chance to confront their tormentor in court because he died in pretrial detention.
But the judge allowed them to testify in the Manhattan federal courtroom
where Epstein would have been tried, to tell the world what his sexual depravity meant.

I was in that courtroom in August 2019 to witness this display of feminine courage as 17 young women lined up at a microphone, heads held high, to
place their suffering on the record. Six others had their lawyers read out letters.

Through tears and shaky voices, they told their stories so we would
understand the toll of broken trust. “I was nothing more than a teenage prostitute. I was his slave,” said one victim who was a 16-year-old virgin when she says Epstein raped her.

The most outspoken victim, Virginia Giuffre, who reportedly committed
suicide three months ago, told the court: “Epstein did not act alone.”

Giuffre, who fell prey to Epstein at 16, alleged she was “passed around
like a platter of fruit” to “powerful men,” including Prince Andrew, who settled out of court after she sued him for sexual abuse.

She accused other powerful men, but never Trump. In fact, in her 2015
memoir, she explicitly ruled out Trump.

As much as the liberal media are salivating at the prospect of another get-Trump pile-on, there is just nothing there.

‘X is not reality’
Meanwhile, the same media are ignoring the latest bombshell revelation in
the Russiagate scandal unveiled last week by Director of National
Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, where the evidence of wrongdoing by President Barack Obama and his henchmen exists and is compelling.

Trump is having the last laugh anyway, as CNN pollster Harry Enten pointed
out last week.

“If anything, Donald Trump’s approval rating has gone up since this whole Epstein saga started,” Enten said. “He is at the apex or close to it in terms of his popularity [with Republicans], Epstein files complaints or
not. Who knew Twitter and X are not reality.”

It just goes to prove that the noisiest loudmouths who claim to represent
MAGA just represent themselves.

https://nypost.com/2025/07/20/opinion/miranda-devine-trump-wins-the- epstein-battle-as-the-left-media-foolishly-believe-prez-on-the-skids/

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