IT’S HARD TO imagine a worse moment for Donald Trump to be caught in the Epstein dragnet than at the tail end of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with food benefits rattled, “affordability” on everyone’s minds, and his own voters starting to wonder if the guy in the red tie is actually on their side.

On the same day Trump finally signed a bill to reopen the government after 43 days of chaos, a coalition of House Democrats and Republicans dropped a tranche of Jeffrey Epstein emails that punches holes straight through the president’s carefully curated story about a distant, long-ago acquaintance, with Epstein alleging Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours at my house” with one of the victims.

While the messages don’t show criminal conduct by Trump, they landed at a moment when Americans are already furious with his handling of Epstein’s files, the shutdown, and the basic question of whether their government works for the powerful or for everyone else. Together, they form a pincer around a president who keeps promising transparency and law and order, then flinching the second those promises threaten him personally.

  • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    I think there’s a couple things. Him blowing Clinton might turn them away faster than…the party that constantly fights to lower the marriage age happening to harbor pedos…

    • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      The thing is, you’re right, despite the him blowing Clinton probably being humour based on Lewinsky and not something that actually happened. But the image will still get stuck in his base’s minds, as it seems like something a pedophile would do without a second thought (which was likely the point of the original joke).

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        1 day ago

        Don’t be so quick to dismiss the Blowjob Photo.

        Absolute historical fact: Trump’s (and Roger Stone’s) political mentor was the psychopathic mob lawyer Roy Cohn, who died of AIDS in the 90s, denying he was gay to very end. One Republican leader said that Cohn wasn’t gay, he just enjoyed sexually dominating young blonde men. Apparently that isn’t gay in MAGA circles. Whatever you have to tell yourself…

        Anyway, it should be noted that when Trump and Roger Stone were under Cohn’s mentorship, both were young blonde men.

        Secondly, we’ve always seen that Trump is intensely focused on his place in the pecking order. He shits on all those he feels are below him, and kisses the ass of those he feels are above him, like legitimate dictators like Putin and Un.

        So doesn’t it make sense that back when Clinton was in power, an aspiring Sociopathic Oligarch like Trump, might show his appreciation for some request he is making from the government? Surely doing things like that to get what you wanted was part of Cohn’s tutelage.

        I want to believe it.