He was repulsive and vile and creepy. His clientele, likewise. Apparently, though, this guy is the topic du jour, along with his best buddy, Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal published a description (but not a photo) of the birthday card Trump sent Epstein in 2003, which was sleazily suggestive. It had some kind of crude sketch of a naked woman with references to “secrets”, which just sounds cheesy.
I hated Trump long before this revelation, and knew he was creepy and dishonest all along. I don’t need this crap to know he’s unfit for office and polite company. I’m mainly disappointed with humanity for being so incapable of recognizing a patent truth for so long.
I’ll let Voidzilla tell the story and where it stands now.
If this is Trump’s downfall, I’m going to be simultaneously relieved and pissed off. He should have been discredited with the grab ’em by the pussy
remark or earlier. And now we have to live with the consequences of his wrecking ball approach to governing.
I didn’t like him the first time I saw him on The Apprentice. He was so hammy and smarmy that I could only stand it for a minute or two. I never tried watching that crap again.
I couldn’t believe the GOP, his followers, and the televangelists let him weasel out of the “grab ’em” line, a clear admission of his complete lack of respect for other people and a rapist’s point of view.
I also thought his line about Ivanka…”I would date her if she wasn’t my daughter”…was very smarmy. By “date” I assume he meant have sex with her, and I’m not convinced that her status as his daughter prevented that. (Note that Ivanka seems to have disappeared from the Trump world.)
Of course, he’s going to deny this and sue the WSJ…which keep in mind is a Murdoch property like Fox News. It’s like the Murdoch’s are just roiling the US public to get the eyeballs and see how disruptive they can be.
As far as I’m concerned, this is small potatoes. We know he was tight with Epstein. I don’t need or even want details about what happened between them and the children they were exploiting. Put him in jail or a prison hospital, but get him out of sight.
Or any of these assholes, really.
I’m more pissed off about Colbert being cancelled than I am about the Epstein melodrama. Everyone knows Trump is guilty as sin. But, after the dust has settled, he will still be in office. Our only hope is that this story will dog him into the midterms, and we regain control of at least one branch of Congress.
I wish everyone knew that. They should have figured that out decades ago.
But they didn’t.
I believe Trump’s health will take him down before this scandal does.
I was a damn kid in the 1980s and that stupid ass “Art of the Deal” book looked like total horseshit to me. And that picture of Trump on the cover made me roll my eyes every time I saw it. This was when I was a kid in elementary school!
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, the whole truth with Trump’s casinos came out and there was a little noise on Entertainment Tonight about how he felt it was “unfair” that the Natives’ casinos got “breaks” or some shit. It wasn’t a huge part of the story–just barely mentioned–but I absolutely HATED him when I heard that shit because I fucking knew history. So to say I wasn’t a fan since I was young is not an exaggeration.
@3: Same. Fucking same.
However: We all know that Trump’s on that Fucking List. It’s obvious as fuck. You would have to be stupid or a fucking cult member to not figure that shit out.
@5: Are you threatening me with a good time here…?
In the Voidzilla video, why do they bleep out the word “pedophile”?
@3 John Watts, the Colbert thing is definitely connected to Trump. Supposed to run through May of 2026. Do not be surprised if his comments about Trump get toned down by CBS during the remaining time. Also don’t be surprised if Colbert quits or pulls a major stunt because of the interference.
Paramount Global (PARA.O), opens new tab, the parent company of CBS, is seeking approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
This month, Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over an interview with his former Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris, that CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcast in October.
I have a sense that CBS/Paramount canceling The Late Show has to do with the sell to Skydance. I saw something recently or perhaps it was Colbert about Skydance toning him down.
I never even heard of Skydance media before.
How can they buy CBS/Paramount?
Oh.
The CEO is David Ellison.
The son of Larry Ellison.
And who is Larry Ellison?
“Who Is Larry Ellison and How Did He Become World’s Second-Richest man?”
That explains a lot.
The deal is supposed to cost $8 billion.
Small change for Larry Ellison, the second richest man in the world.
I agree with Kyle that maga is a cult and ultimately bends the knee to the cult leader: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz0iFsVkdVk
“Secrets” is an rough synonym of “enigma”. “Enigma” (which appears in one of the lines of the card text) is an anagram of “gamine”. “Gamine” means “a girl who hangs around on the streets” (m-w) or “A mischievous, playful, elfish, pert girl or young woman” (wikt).
This wasn’t in the original article, but I noticed it showing up in followups to commentary on Bluesky. Unfortunately for Trump, this kind of secret-squirrel decoder-ring stuff is freaking catnip to the sort of conspiracist who was able to gin up all kinds of lurid scenarios from the barest scrap of evidence. And I actually personally think it’s kinda plausible. It’s not like Epstein or Trump had any known interest in WWII cryptography.
I want the Epstein stuff to stick so bad. It’s better than nothing and it is a worthwhile issue for the public to be pulling apart. Sure! There’s lots of other things that should have tipped the public off before they voted Trump in, but this is what we got and they based a lot of their identity on being anti-pedophile. Might as well take advantage of it and maybe some justice can be meted out.
Autobot Silverwynde @ # 6: In the late 1980s/early 1990s, the whole truth with Trump’s casinos came out …
Oh no, the whole truth has yet to emerge.
Allow me to offer a couple of clues –
• Trump’s casinos were a favorite hangout of the newly ascendant Russian mafia in New York;
• The New Jersey Gaming Commission imposed its highest fine (up to that time) on Trump’s company for failing to implement mandatory anti-money-laundering bookkeeping controls in its casino operations;
and a widely-reported and highly plausible rumor –
• Russian intelligence services and Russian organized crime share a great deal of overlap.
The dots almost connect themselves, don’t they?
Reginald Selkirk@8:
Not on YouTube myself, but as I understand it from people who are, certain words can (maybe? there’s a lot of (probably intentional) uncertainty here) get your videos demonetized because advertisers don’t want to be associated with them. If your video gets demonetized, the algorithm buries it because it won’t be making any money for YouTube. Therefore, leaving those words in means that people don’t see your video and you don’t get paid for it.
Now, it’s possible that that particular word wouldn’t cause that, but creators tend to err on the side of caution for obvious reasons. And, as luck would have it, Stephanie Sterling had a video about this very topic (26 minutes) just last Monday.
As others have said elsewhere, it’s telling that JD Vance has publicly demanded that the WSJ release the image of this letter. No idea on how more news headlines about this, with the actual image legitimizing Trump’s involvement, would actually help. And it will take a lot more than Trump’s complete removal from the GOP to regain the lost voting base, especially considering how Trump is not going to quietly leave of his own volition.
It stinks that it took so long for the cultists to see the vileness of their saviour. But as the saying goes, better late than never.
“But as the saying goes, better late than never.”
Hm. You figure it’s a done deal, then? I don’t reckon so, myself.
BTW, any loss of voting base is not part of his considerations; had his two terms and age is catching up with him.
(I thinj you’re not one of those who claim Democracy is dead in the USA and no more elections will occur, because such people shouldn’t be appealing to some lost voter base)
Is this a cult?
The plasticity of fantasies pulled from their necessities.
Tribalism is what it is, fishy.
I was talking to a friend about the fact that the Murdoch’s are using WSJ against Taco, while Fox News is still for Taco. It’s like a game with them, and they’re making money on both ends. And yes, you gotta wonder how much Taco’s position is part of the act. That’s part of the Kayfabe schtick which Taco embraced years ago.
I also thought his line about Ivanka…”I would date her if she wasn’t my daughter”…was very smarmy…
I would not be at all surprised to find that Trump is or was having sex with Ivanka, with or without her “consent.” Impunity, and bragging about it, is a central part of his brand; he’s well known to have a thing for much younger girls; he’s been plausibly accused of raping at least one underage girl; and there are too many photos of him out there, posing VERY inappropriately with a much younger Ivanka, to merely brush off as innocent dad-daughter clowning about. He’s always been able to get away with anything he wants; and he’s always wanted underage booty; and does anyone think anyone in Trump’s circle would lift a finger to oppose him if they suspected he was raping his own daughter?
@4– It was more a matter of not caring than not knowing.
I pessimistic that any scandal will get Trump thrown out of the White house. He’ll just scream ‘witch hunt’ and ‘fake news’ and true believers will lap it up. Anyone republican that somehow grows a spine will get drummed out of office (or murdered, yay stochastic terrorism) and Trump will keep fuck arsing around until the clots in his legs jam his brain.
John Morales @18:
I’m not saying it’s a done deal, but it certainly seems (to me at least) to be the biggest disruption to his base so far. There’s also the disruption of income to the wealthy thanks to Trump’s actions, like Walmart’s Waltons, and the major Republican donors who own hotels, and casinos, and manufacturers, and so forth. Republicans hoping to regain their votes in red but not solidly red states in 2026 and 2028, may not find their major donors to be as generous.
I also lack confidence of Trump deciding to honour two term limits when the time comes, assuming he’s still healthy enough to go through campaigning. Some Republicans might try to gingerly encourage him to step down when his dementia and failing health becomes too apparent, only to find Trump attacking them and their re-election campaigns as a result.
Since Trump has done so much to damage his reputation among the ever loyal MAGAts during just a little over 6 months, I can’t picture him becoming enough of a statesman over the next 3.5 years to just get things back to normal. Not with the likes of Marj Greene, Tucker Carlson, and Charlie Kirk already being publicly critical of him. He’s done enough to harm America’s military to dissuade them from choosing him over country as well. The more potholes, the rougher the ride.
They got Al Capone for tax evasion.
If Trump loses his cult, he will become vulnerable.
The yellow Repub congresscritters hate him, but fear the cult.
Why is Murdoch’s WSJ going after Taco, while Murdoch’s Fox News kissing Taco’s ass. Maybe Murdoch is just playing both sides of the right-wing coin to make money: Trump vs Murdoch: why the Wall Street Journal isn’t toeing the line by Michael Savage. Meanwhile Taco sues the WSJ for libel.
If you’ve ever followed so-called “professional wrestling” in the US, you will recognize the Kayfabe game they are playing..
birgerjohansson @26: And Nixon was brought down by a minor hotel break-in.
@27 – robro: If you’ve ever followed so-called “professional wrestling” in the US, you will recognize the Kayfabe game they are playing.
Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.
@15: Oh yeah. Absolutely. And yet somehow, that all went bankrupt because those Natives got unfair advantages!
We’re gonna be his next bankruptcy.
I remeMber the Clinton scandal. Nutty Newt Gingrich and other Republicans bellowing, it wasn’t the blowjob that was the problem. It was the Clinton lies. Pam Bondi. I have the Epstein client list on my desk right now. Pam Bondi, There is no client list. Trump, “FAKES NEWS!”. Trump is a well known psychopathic liar. I strongly suspect this will not go away and will only get nastier as time goes on. And the Trumpoids deserve all the trouble it causes them. Elect an asshole, expect a latrine. And there is still the many videos found in Epstein’s safe out there somewhere.
stuffin @29: The Mango Mussolini is incapable of holding onto a thought across multiple sentences. He regularly dozes off in public. He’s gotten lost on an empty stage several times this year. This is not a man who’s capable of pulling off an elaborate long con. And even if he was, what’s the end game? He was hemorrhaging support among his base before the Journal piece was published. How does this “kayfabe” fight between the Orange and Murdoch help with that?
Could Vance’s demand that the letter be published – while Trump has demanded no such thing – be a sneaky move to keep the pot boiling? If Trump can be forced or eased out, Vance becomes President.
Trump’s defenders over the Epstein files have one good point: if they are damning to Trump, why didn’t Biden have them released? There are at least two possible explanations (apart from them containing nothing worth releasing, which the WSJ article somewhat undermines): (1) that they also contain damaging material on prominent Democrats (Bill Clinton is an obvious possibility) or donors; (2) that Biden underestimated Trump’s ability to keep his hold on the Republicans, and – in keeping with his appointment of the useless Garland as AG – preferred to keep to the US tradition of Presidents ignoring their predecessors’ crimes.
@5,
“I believe Trump’s health will take him down before this scandal does.”
But Karoline Leavitt said it’s only chronic venous insufficiency, so it must be true.
And another thing that bothers me, we’ve all seen the pictures of these girls, they were not from Cambodia or Ghana, they were pretty white girls from well off families. How did Epstein and Maxwell get them to get on planes and fly to meet Trump and Clinton and Prince Andrew and whoever for sex? Extortion and blackmail? Or worse?
I soo.much want this ogre to fall while Noam Chomsky is still alive to witness a change for the better for USA.
I am glad for any exposure because I would like to increase the admittedly very slim probability of justice for the victims. So far, the only person to wind up in court, post-Epstein death, is Maxwell. A woman.
We should be overloading the prisons with the sadistic pedophiles who preyed upon the young women. The MN (malignant narcissist) is one of them but there are many others. There is no Hell so I cannot root for them to rot there but it sure would be nice if at least some of them join Maxwell in the slammer.
KG @ # 33: If Trump can be forced or eased out, Vance becomes President.
According to the 22nd Amendment, if veeps become president during the first half of the previous prez’s term, those veeps are only eligible for one more term; if the prev-prez lasts into the second half of their term, the veep-that-was can have two more terms (10 years max).
So, assuming the Repubs don’t plan to overthrow the Constitution entirely, JDV would hold a much stronger position if DJT stays in office until Jan 17, 2027.
birgerjohansson @ # 36 – I deeply doubt a Vance presidency would constitute “a change for the better for USA.”
It’s worth noting that Vance did not expressly call for the thing to be released to the public. He expressed disbelief that the thing actually exists. To the extent he’s asking for it to be shown, he’s asking for it to be shown to Trump only. It could be a plausibly deniable way of saying that it should be published, but that’s an inference.
His exact words:
Sure.
(Does anyone not believe it? :)
@32 microraptor- Chaos, Trump thrives in chaos. Doesn’t have to be a genius when everyone else is distracted by the chaos. Also, could be staged by Trump and Murdock for unknown reasons. Another thing, I’m not buying his base is hemorrhaging support. Not buying it yet, I see too many supporters where I live who do not care what the hell he does as long as he keeps aggression going against the immigrants. And the religious among his supporters already believe he was sent by God (who works in mysterious ways). I believe only an election will give us that answer.
Next up to make the journey to the great silence is Ghislaine Maxwell. Another jail cell suicide? Too many very powerful people throughout the world at risk. Add in the reports of Epstein being a CIA tool.
Epstein lawyer (Alan Dershowitz) says Ghislaine Maxwell knows ‘everything’ and should get immunity to testify before Congress
https://www.yahoo.com/news/epstein-lawyer-says-ghislaine-maxwell-160728115.html
“She knows everything. She is the Rosetta Stone. She knows everything. She arranged every single trip with everybody. She knows everything,” Dershowitz said on Fox News Sunday.
As of this last week an old interview has popped up, done with Luthar Camble, aka Uncle Luke, from Too Live Crew.
He was invited by Trump, along with several others, to Trump’s stupid golf course, back in the 90s, to a party being held after a pageant. He bailed after seeing what was going on. What was going on? A lot of old guys, though its unclear if he saw Trump participating, a lot of drugs, a lot of naked, likely underaged girls, and lots of private rooms, in which the old guys where doing pretty much what you expect, given the Epstein stuff, with those girls. He flat out says in the interview, “I might have, at one time, sold, to people I thought where stupid, but I never used, and no way was I going to get arrested for being involved with possible underage sex acts, so I got out their there fast.” Its also kind of unclear if this was taking place “with” Epstein, or Maxwell being there at all, or if this was all, totally, Trump’s own setup.
Whoops!
Its like watching the wheels come off a train, in slow motion, during a derailment, and having to wonder – are we going to finally see it wreck, or will, somehow, some way, it keeps going down the track, to create more hazards at, possibly in the middle of an even more populated area. You want to see it just explode, but.. somehow it just keeps going, with more parts falling off…
Here’s an interesting post:
On July 18, Senator Dick Durban sent a letter to AG Pam Bondi, and also posted on social media:
( xitter — don’t read the comments )
https://xcancel.com/judiciarydems/status/1946246860974305447
https://bsky.app/profile/judiciarydems.senate.gov/post/3luauqrkrua2k
So Allison Gill (muellershewrote) read this part:
And wondered if any of the 1000ish FBI employees would be willing to leak a little about that investigation:
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/the-epstein-cover-up-at-the-fbi
So there may be something that turned up at that time which led to the “nothing to see here” release from the DOJ+FBI, and Trump’s complete screaming meltdown and attempts to deflect attention.
And this (from the unsigned DOJ+FBI release):
Might not be entirely true . . .
PDF of the letter from Durbin to Bondi:
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2025-07-18%20RJD%20Letter%20to%20AG%20Bondi%20re%20Epstein.pdf
Another post following up on #44
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/exclusive-the-universe-of-those-with
tl;dr : The process of the FBI/DOJ searching the contents of the Epstein files was handled with horribly sloppy and unprofessional operational security, among all of the other problems. There are very many potential leakers. Perhaps the data might be exfiltrated by someone not even in the agencies involved.
It’s a shitshow of epic proportions.