The superpowers of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, as a public figure have long included the ability to redirect, evade and deny.
But the very used methods of Republicans to change their subject when a difficult issue becomes politically does not work, since its White House fades persistent from its generally loyal base on the sentenced sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein and its associates.
Trump has scolded journalists, demanded ignorance and offered distractions in an effort to cancel the questions about Epstein and suspicions that still revolve around the dishonorous case of the financial years after his death in prison in 2019. The demand for answers has only grown.
“For a president and an administration that is very good to control a narrative, this is one that has been more difficult,” said Republican strategist Erin Maguire, a former spokesman for the Trump campaign.
Unlike the political crises that hindered Trump’s first mandate, including two judgments and an investigation into the alleged collusion of the campaign with Russia, the people who promote the impulse of greater transparency in Epstein have largely be their supporters, not their political enemies.
Trump has fed his base with conspiracy theories for years, including the false statement of “Birther” that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump’s advisors fueled the conspiracies about Epstein, just to declare them debatable when entering the position.
That has not had a good time with the president’s right -wing base, which for a long time believed that the government was covering Epstein’s ties with the rich and powerful.
“Donald Trump has been running a Ponzi scheme based on propaganda for most of a decade, and is finally reaching,” said Geoff Duncan, a former republican governor of Georgia and Trump’s critic.
“The extreme right element is excavated. They are determined to get this information.”
The White House has dismissed Trump’s ties with Epstein as “false news”, although it has recognized that its name appears in documents related to the case of Epstein. Trump and Epstein were friends for years before falling.
“The only people who seem to shake this story from their minds on one track are the media and the Democrats,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields.
Before leaving for a trip to Scotland on Friday, the president again urged people to get their attention elsewhere.
“People should really focus on how well the country is going,” Trump told reporters, regretting that scrutiny was not giving others in Epstein’s orbit.
“They don’t talk about them, they talk about me. I have nothing to do with the boy.”
The art of distraction
Trump, in recent weeks, has used a typical diversion play book.
He cast a journalist for asking Epstein in the White House Cabinet room. He affirmed in the Oval office that he was not paying much attention to the problem. And, with the help of Tulsi Gabbard, its director of National Intelligence, explosively accused Obama of betrayal for how he tried intelligence in 2016 about Russian interference in US elections.
On Thursday, Trump made his distraction tour of the Federal Reserve, where he fought with President Jerome Powell on construction costs and pressed lower interest rates.
That, said Republican strategist Brad Todd, was more effective than focusing on Obama in 2016, that voters had already litigated by putting Trump in office.
“I think the Tulsi Gabbard looks back is not the way they pivot,” said Todd, noting that Trump’s trip to the Fed highlighted the issue of economic affordability and the assignment of a Washington institution. “If I were him, I would go to the Fed every day until the rates are reduced.”
The Democrats have taken over Trump’s efforts to move forward, feeling a political weakness for the president and divisions in the Republican party that can explode while their own political actions are low following last year’s surveys at the polls.
TO Reuters/The Ipsos survey this month showed that most Americans think that 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 archives related to Epstein and his case, which the Department of Justice initially promised to deliver.
“Yesterday was another example of Trump’s people who tried to launch so many things against the wall to avoid Epstein’s archives,” said Mark Warner, an American Democratic Senator from Virginia, in a publication on X on Thursday about Gabbard’s accusations against Obama.
Trump’s allies see administration’s efforts to change the subject as a normal part of a total strategy.
“They always go to 100 miles per hour. Each department, each secretary of the cabinet, all are at full speed that covers the area with news,” said Republican strategist Maguire.
Trump has resisted harder periods before, and his conservative base, despite his frustration on the archives, is largely satisfied with Trump’s work on immigration and economics. In July Reuters/Ipsos survey, 56 percent of Republican respondents favored administration’s immigration work raids, while 24 % were opposed and 20pc.
The pollster Frank Luntz said Trump had faced sentences for serious crimes and other criminal charges, but still won the re -election last year.
“We have been in this same situation several times before and he has escaped every time,” Luntz said.
