When You Accidentally Admit to Sex Trafficking
This Epstein stuff ain't going away.
From NBC News:
President Donald Trump said convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “stole” Virginia Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago club, a stunning admission that could increase scrutiny of his relationship with the late financier — even as his administration seeks to change the subject from Epstein.
Trump was speaking to reporters Tuesday when he was asked about his comments over the weekend about a falling-out with Epstein because he took employees from his business.
"He took people that worked for me. And I told him, 'Don’t do it anymore.' And he did it," Trump said, telling reporters that he barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
"I said, 'Stay the hell out of here,'" he said.
Pressed about whether any of the "stolen" employees were young women, Trump said many of them worked in the club's spa.
"The answer is yes, they were in the spa," he said. "I told him, I said, 'Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa.' ... And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again."
Trump was asked specifically whether Epstein had stolen Giuffre, who was one of Epstein's most prominent abuse survivors and led the charge calling for his arrest. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, has said she met Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell while she was working at Mar-a-Lago as a teenager.
"I think she worked at the spa," Trump said. "I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her, and by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever."
As LL and I have both discussed, the Epstein story has legs. And the major reason why it has legs is that Donald Trump is too stupid to stop talking. He can't help himself. It's his entire DNA to be the center of attention. To make himself the center of attention. And to deflect any criticism by utilizing the DARVO method that all domestic abusers have come to use: deny, attack, reverse victim and offender. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, this has worked for Trump. The media has let him go on offense whenever he's been criticized. They have allowed him to attack the messenger. His sheeple lap it up. They see him as the alpha. But even so-called alphas have flaws, and we are seeing these flaws magnify exponentially when it comes to Trump and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The thing is that to Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was cool. He was the guy. He was his friend, perhaps the only friend that he has ever had. For Trump to completely disown him is simply unfathomable. So Trump keeps talking about him. For better or worse. Yesterday aboard Air Force One, Trump once again couldn't stop himself from talking about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Rather than attack the reporter for asking a "stupid question", Trump felt compelled to provide further context to help clarify his Monday comments about Virginia Giuffre. In Trump's head, his response helped clarify how and why there was a falling out between him and Epstein. In actuality, his response further confounded the relationship. Were there other girls taken by Ghislaine Maxwell from Mar-a-Lago? Did Trump grant permission for her to be there? Did Trump know for what purpose the girls were taken? And was Trump in any way supporting Maxwell's recruitment of underage girls like Virginia Giuffre, who were then brought into Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring?
This is the can of worms that wasn't even on people's radars 48 hours ago. But once again, Trump shat all over himself in the name of his ego. In his story, he has to be the hero. In Trump's mind, he looks good for kicking out Jeffrey Epstein for continuing to poach underage girls from Mar-a-Lago. In reality, this only furthers the narrative that Trump and Epstein were close and were perhaps even intentionally collaborating in trafficking underage girls. Ghislaine Maxwell could have gone anywhere to recruit young girls. Why did she feel so comfortable doing it at Donald Trump's own personal residence? Is it because he was so naive, he'd never figure out what was going on? Or was it because he had created an environment where young women were employed, and they could now be easily approached by Maxwell, who seemingly had permission to stalk around the grounds as needed?
Neither answer paints Trump positively. And neither answer stops the QAnon calls to release the Epstein files. In fact, if anything, this adds more fuel to the fire to have them released. By bringing Ghislaine Maxwell into all of this, the Trump administration continues to bring focus to the relationship between Trump and the two nefarious sex traffickers. Donald Trump was undeniably in their orbit, and each time Trump reminds us of this proximity, it leads to more questions than answers. For the first time in five years, the media is actually pursuing a Trump scandal instead of brushing it under the rug, and the main reason is that Trump himself is the one who is using a leafblower instead of a simple duster. Whereas a more skilled politician would deflect the story, Trump can't let it go. He has to somehow come out on top. But when you roll in the mud with pigs like Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, that mud doesn't always go away. You might be able to wash most of it off, but it's the hard-to-reach places where a bit of mud remains. For Donald Trump, his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has become something he cannot rid himself of, no matter how hard he tries.
And the harder he tries, the more he'll implicate himself like he did on Tuesday.