What characterizes a president as great? Greatness must be defined as not only moving ahead when you know you’re right but moving around when you know you have been wrong.
One of the great misconceptions about President Donald Trump is that he consistently takes his base for granted and will even dig in his heels when he is convinced that history – or the last advisor he just talked to – is on his side. Trump’s u-turn on the Epstein files demonstrates again that Trump knows just how far he can push the grassroots before the MAGA alliance that gave him the White House in two elections decides it has lost faith in their leader and political chaos unfolds. Where Trump has shown real brilliance in his political career is in understanding the demands of his core supporters and responding to those demands when it is absolutely necessary.
The president made this difficult call not just for the unity of the GOP or the demands of the MAGA movement, but ultimately for the good of the country as well. He is always about making America great when the chips are down.
Trump’s surprise decision to encourage House Republicans to follow the lead of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to demand the release of the Epstein files shows again that Trump is not the deranged narcissist that his left-wing critics insist he is but is a keen political realist who understands when it is time to compromise. He is correctly assessing the political moment and taking the necessary action to save the MAGA movement and keep the Republicans unified.
Trump has actively opposed both Massie and Greene and even taken to calling the latter “wacky” and “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene.” But of course he has dismissed other Republicans with whom he clashed with equal relish and fervor. Remember “Little Marco” Rubio or the time he suggested that Sen. Ted Cruz’s father might have been involved in the assassination of President John Kennedy?
It was all politics at the time and that’s precisely what’s going on right now with the Epstein files. Trump came to the realization – probably at the end of one of those marathon days this chief executive regularly spends doing the nation’s business – that the MAGA crowd was not just disappointed with his insistence that Republicans should oppose the release of the files, they were furious. That fury began when Trump expressed disbelief that anyone would even want to examine Epstein’s crimes and that anyone who did want to do so was somehow falling for a Democratic “hoax.”
The MAGA true believers are loyal to Trump but to suddenly declare that the Epstein files “didn’t matter” after years of saying exactly the opposite was too much for supporters who took the president at his word that the files did matter because they are not about some lone pedophile who collected kiddie porn and arranged dalliances with underage girls on his Caribbean island for his private perverse pleasure. This was and remains an issue of overwhelming importance to the people who want to believe that Trump also wants to expose the shocking and putrid corruption of the Deep State’s cover of these crimes.
They know how Democratic heroes like former President Bill Clinton have been linked to Epstein. They also know that there are probably the names of prominent Republican lawmakers in these files but the MAGA movement wants to know the truth. They hear the talk of how the Dems and GOP have formed a Uniparty and they are demanding that Trump rise above this.
Despite all the furor over Trump’s name being raised in Epstein’s emails, there is little for Trump to fear in any further revelation. Trump, who neither consumes alcohol nor takes drugs, has always shown a weakness for women. But they have always been adult women and Trump was too smart to risk his political future by becoming one of Epstein’s clients. Clearly, Trump was relatively friendly with Epstein when the grifter financier was still legitimate news. As Epstein’s crimes became more obvious, Trump distanced himself to the point that he became a political opponent of Epstein.
The MAGA base has not been entirely happy with the Trump presidency, despite Trump’s massive successes at sealing the southern border and tackling the enormous problem of illegal immigration. His assault on DEI policies and insistence that there are only two genders alone make him a president who understands how average Americans are sick to death of being scammed and played by Democratic lies. But Trump has not ended foreign wars as he promised to do and this is a huge matter of discontent for MAGA supporters.
Trump knew he had to move on Epstein. This was a bridge he was asking the base to cross and they were not just balking but absolutely refusing to do so.
Trump is clearly watching the polls and comprehending that if Republicans don’t want to lose the House and Senate in next year’s midterm elections, he is going to have to start mending fences right now and restore the lustre and unity of not just the Republican Party but the MAGA forces as well. It is never easy for any politician to conduct a 180 policy maneuver, especially when that politician is as forceful, vocal and dominant as Trump.
But he did what he needed to do – not just for himself and the party that nominated him as its leader, but the good of the country as well.
