The president has tried to distract from the Epstein story – but his ill-conceived Mar-a-Lago tale has undermined him
O
ne of Trump’s preternatural abilities is his apparent animal instinct to lie on the spot whenever he senses he might be cornered. His initial Pavlovian training by his mob lawyer Roy Cohn and subsequent experience in more than 4,000 lawsuits and countless scandals seem to have ingrained in him that lying, the more outrageous the better, buys him time, plays to his credulous followers as insouciant defiance, and wears down his accusers.
When Trump’s distractions failed to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files, he offered a story without missing a beat to distance himself from any taint. In his tale, he was traduced by Epstein. Trump was taken advantage of, violated, despoiled. There could be no guilt by association; Trump was a victim, too.
Perhaps, after claiming to no effect that Barack Obama, Joe Biden and the former FBI director James Comey had fabricated the files, he felt that he had at last found ground where he could gain some traction. Trump always designates a scapegoat, but neither Tren de Agua nor Hunter Biden would fit with Epstein. All along, Trump has missed the easiest and most obvious scapegoat. Why not blame Epstein for Epstein? Trump just needed to invent a story.
