This fascistic and corrupt administration is, by definition, scandalous; it has sparked widespread outrage and protest over its immoral, illegal abuses. But in a narrower sense, Trump’s second term has been free of the kind of ubiquitous political scandal that defined his first term, when allegations of collusion with Russia threatened to undo his presidency. Until now.
It’s easy to forget that Russiagate—all those years of leaks and denials, of right-wing conspiracy theories, and the plodding Mueller inquiry—didn’t have to drag on the way it did. If Trump had disavowed Russian efforts to aid his campaign in 2016, it may not have led to a lengthy investigation and his impeachment. Instead, Trump not only used hacked materials to aid his campaign, but repeatedly encouraged Russia to help him to defeat Hillary Clinton. This encouragement led many to understandably conclude that there was a kind of quid pro quo between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin—or, much less reasonably, to conclude that Trump, first as the Republican nominee and later as president, was being blackmailed and controlled by the Kremlin.
As a result, though, the scandal dragged on for years, undermining Trump’s first term practically from its inception. The drip-drip of news meant that the story never fully went away. As with Epstein, Russia was far from the most serious issue of Trump’s first term, which was defined by family separations at the border, efforts to rob millions of health care, and naked corruption and cronyism. But it was an effective metaphor for a president who was an aspiring autocrat who would do anything, even court a longtime U.S. foe, to amass more power.
As with Russiagate, it seems possible—perhaps even likely—that the most salacious allegations will be false; there is, for instance, no evidence that Trump visited Epstein’s notorious private island. But that hardly matters. Trump again faces two clear choices, and both are bad: He can continue to stonewall the release of all files on Epstein and hope that people move on (which they probably won’t do), or he can release everything and have to own up to the fact that he was friends with the twenty-first century’s most notorious pedophile (that is, assuming he wasn’t also an Epstein client). For now, Trump is taking the first approach. On Thursday, he demanded the release of grand jury testimony in the Epstein case (in which he is unlikely to appear). It seems highly unlikely that will satisfy anyone, particularly those in MAGA who have been demanding the full release of the “Epstein files.”
With Russiagate, it was possible to see how it might end Trump’s presidency. That’s much harder to imagine with the Epstein scandal—not only because of the dimensions of the scandal, but because how much more beholden today’s Republican Party is to MAGA. But there are signs that it could be equally damaging: a nagging scandal that never goes away no matter how much Trump rages against it, and which weakens his presidency with each passing day.
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