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Good Friday Morning! Except to the CEO and head of HR for the AI company Astronomer. If you’ve missed it, the two of them went viral for holding each other, very clearly being intimate, until they appeared on the “kiss cam” during a Coldplay concert.
Both of them panicked, which made everyone laugh, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin quipped, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” The CEO’s wife removed her last name from her Facebook profile, which should indicate the direction this is going.
It may be the quickest I’ve ever seen an affair go viral on the internet. That’s what they’ll be known for now. Life comes at you fast.
This week, I’m going to get into the Epstein scandal, how it’s Trump’s second-largest blunder in the second term, and go over some weird WSJ reporting – links to follow.
Quick Hits:
- China’s leadership is shaking. I noted a few weeks ago that Gregory Slayton’s piece in the New York Post mentioned potential leadership changes in China, with Xi being slighted by the Politburo. Slayton is back this week with a similar piece, showing more evidence. My only point of disagreement is that I don’t believe China will necessarily head towards a more moderate leadership post-Xi. If Politiboro concludes that weakness towards Trump is what cost them during Xi’s leadership period, we could get someone even more dangerous and iron-willed.
- The American Almanac is growing! I want to express my sincere gratitude to those of you who subscribe, share, and help us grow. This week, we’ve announced a second edition of the Almanac, which will be released at 9 pm CST on weekdays. Look for that in your inboxes moving forward. You can subscribe here for free. Additionally, please check out Capital Digest (finance/economics) and Real Talk Digest. There are more projects in the pipeline. If you don’t see anything a day after signing up – check your spam folders.
Where you can find me this week
Please subscribe, rate, and review The Horse Race on YouTube — the reviews help listeners, and readers like you find me. Make sure to sign up for the Conservative Institute’s daily newsletter and The American Almanac.
China’s Talons Sink Into The Far-Left – Conservative Institute
Biden’s Autopen Use Is The Scandal In D.C. – Conservative Institute
Stephen Colbert Helped Kill Late Night – Conservative Institute
Epstein Is Trump’s Second Major Self-Inflicted Wound
Signalgate was the first big self-inflicted wound of the Trump White House. It was relatively short-lived, however. The Jeffrey Epstein debacle is the second major self-inflicted wound by the Trump White House, and unless the news cycle shifts, it will be challenging to move past this one.
I say that because I’ve been seeing data on what readers like, as well as the results of the divided polls we’ve been running at the Almanac. Trump is struggling to keep people with him on the idea that it’s time to just move on from Epstein.
In terms of populist anger, nothing represents the swamp and corruption of D.C. and politics better than Jeffrey Epstein. He trafficked in illicit money, power, and young girls. My general feeling on everything is simple: burn it all down. Reveal all the secrets and names, and we’ll live with the results.
But this is one of the few topics where MAGA and Republicans aren’t following with Trump. They’re demanding answers despite Trump’s insistence otherwise. And what everyone knows is that Trump is fully aware of the truth here, due to his proximity to both Epstein and those involved.
Mark Halperin replayed a few throwback clips on his show from 2015, where Trump was freely talking about Epstein’s island being a problem for the Clintons. Trump is knowledgeable.
His base revolting against him is partially why he reversed course late Thursday. And Pam Bondi followed, saying she would send her attorneys to court to seek the unsealing of the grand jury files. I’ll be honest: this ploy is unlikely to work, because the cases are still active. I’d be surprised if anything got unsealed, but it does shift the target away from the White House.
For now.
The Wall Street Journal dropped a story on Trump, too. They found a previously unreported birthday album for Epstein’s 50th Birthday. The binder is alleged to contain letters from Epstein’s friends, wishing him a good birthday, with “bawdy” messages.
I don’t doubt the Journal found something in Epstein’s possession like this. I have my doubts that Trump wrote this note. It doesn’t even sound like him. Here’s the applicable Journal reporting:
It isn’t clear how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared. Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person.
“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.
Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.
Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.
Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.
Trump may have signed this. There’s no way he wrote it. His response, when the Journal asked about it, was: “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women … It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
A man who says he’s never “wrote a picture” does not use words like enigma. I’m a writer. I use words like enigma. Donald Trump does not. I’m not saying Trump is dumb, because he’s not, but I am saying all his books were ghostwritten for a reason.
In that respect, this doesn’t pass the smell test. It will, however, churn the political waters and keep things stirred up, which is why Trump is pushing for the DOJ to argue for the unsealing of grand jury records. This is a crisis management strategy from Trump. He’s managing it poorly, and now it’s burning him.
There’s one other bizarre aspect to this WSJ story: why is it coming out now? We’re a decade into Trump’s very prominent existence on the political stage. Epstein is dead. The time to drop things like this was years ago.
That tells us two things: 1) This Journal story likely wasn’t sourced by a Democrat. If Clinton or Biden knew about this kind of story, they’d have dropped it by now like the Access Hollywood tape. 2) That means there are essentially two people this likely came from in GOP circles: Allen Dershowitz or Steve Bannon.
Dershowitz, notably, is among those with a letter in the same binder. The Journal reports, “Dershowitz’s letter included a mock-up of a ‘Vanity Unfair’ magazine cover with mock headlines such as ‘Who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Jeffrey Epstein?‘ He joked that he had convinced the magazine to change the focus of an article from Epstein to Bill Clinton. Dershowitz, who represented Epstein after his first arrest, said, ‘It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.’“
Bannon is more interesting and the more likely person. Unlike everyone else, Bannon didn’t enter Epstein’s life until the end – the very end. And there are some bizarre details about that (from 2024):
Steve Bannon is one of the far right’s most well-known and active operators, having been an adviser to Donald Trump and and the editor of Breitbart. Why, then, did he spend months in the homes of Jeffrey Epstein, interviewing the billionaire sex criminal for a documentary?
Business Insider revealed Wednesday that Bannon has hours of footage of Epstein from the financier’s homes in Manhattan and Paris before Epstein died in jail in 2019, supposedly as part of a documentary to be called The Monsters: Epstein’s Life Among the Global Elite.
More than five years later, a small teaser trailer of the film from 2021, showing Bannon arguing with Epstein over his treatment of women, is the only part of it that has been released. It makes little sense, considering that Epstein is vilifiedin Bannon’s target right-wing audience and that having exclusive footage of the deceased billionaire would likely bring in viewers far beyond that group.
One possibility might be that Bannon wouldn’t be reflected in the best light. Bannon met Epstein in December 2017 after the former stopped working for then-President Trump. During the summer of 2018, Bannon spent a lot of time with Epstein, supposedly for the documentary. But according to associates of the two men, Bannon’s documentary wasn’t serious at all.
These associates told B.I. that the two acted more like friends than adversaries, and Bannon was actually trying to help Epstein with public relations, advising the billionaire on how to handle the legal and journalistic investigations against him. Bannon continued to spend time with Epstein through the next year, when the financier would be arrested on sex-trafficking charges.
Bannon has beaten a loud drum to release everything about Epstein. But the odds he’s doing that out of his good moral code are essentially nil.
Someone tipped the Journal off. And the timing coincided with the current controversy surrounding Trump and Epstein. I highly doubt Democrats sourced this story, so it had to have come from the right. If I had to guess, Bannon would be my top choice because he’s seeking to manipulate Trump.
But it’s anyone’s guess.
This story won’t die, and Trump needs either to reverse the public’s view of him on it or hope the news cycle moves on. I suspect the push to fire Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve is partly an attempt to shift the news cycle.
Epstein is Trump’s second significant unforced error. We’ll see how he manages this one, and whether this Journal story withstands scrutiny.
Links of the week
Memo Reveals D.C. Judges Are Predisposed Against Trump Administration – The Federalist
The three-way battle for the Democratic Party – Vox
Medical School Has Gotten Too Political – Glenn Loury
Why Trump Was Right to Defund the Trevor Project: The organization has peddled pseudoscience to vulnerable kids. – City Journal
Shane Gillis’ hilarious ESPYs set was a litmus test for our uptight culture – NYPost
An Ode To The Fundamentals – Avi Woolf
OpenAI releases new Agent model – OpenAI
X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week
Avi Woolf on why public media got defunded.
Satire of the week
Trump Announces $175 Billion Rosie O’Donnell Defense System – Onion
Winning: Trump Announces Mexican Coke Will Now Be Made In America – Babylon Bee
Study Finds Wedding Will Either Inspire Woman to Marry Boyfriend or Break Up With Him – Reductress
Cancelled Band’s Tour Shirt Demoted to Pajamas – The Hard Times
Rupee Value Plummets After Hyrule Field is Mowed – The Hard Drive
America Finally Great Again After President Makes Soft Drink Use Different Ingredient – Waterford Whispers News