'In danger of coming undone': Analyst says Epstein crisis exposed 2 key problems for Trump

22 July

President Donald Trump at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on April 12, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)

Now six months into his second term, President Donald Trump is already struggling to defeat a problem of his own making, according to a recent analysis.

In a Tuesday op-ed for The Hill, Democratic strategist Brad Bannon wrote that the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein controversy is taking all the wind out of Trump's sails less than a year into his second presidency. He noted that prior to the Trump administration's mishandling of the Epstein files dominating the news cycle, Trump had two major legislative victories — his massive tax and spending bill, and his defunding of NPR and PBS.

But according to Bannon, the longer Trump refuses to be transparent about Epstein, the worse it will be for him politically. He added that the scandal "reveals two key problems with [Trump's] second term" that pose a significant risk to his ability to be effective in the future.

"First, the president has broken a series of promises he made to the American people during the 2024 campaign. Second, he has always relied heavily on his most loyal supporters in times of trouble, but the once solid MAGA base is in is danger of coming undone," Bannon wrote.

"Trump’s refusal to release the infamous Epstein list is just one of the many promises he made while he was soliciting votes for his return to the White House last year," he continued. "He has become the typical politician who will say anything to get elected and fail to deliver when he wins."

Bannon went on to argue that Trump has already burned most of the bridges that helped him get back into the White House outside of the Epstein matter, including his former friendship with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who was his #1 campaign donor in 2024 before railing against his budget law. He also angered influential far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson by continuing to fund Ukraine in its war with Russia, and former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon (who is not related to the author) even used his podcast to tear into Trump's signature domestic policy legislation for lavishing the wealthy with another multitrillion-dollar tax cut, arguing instead for significant hikes in the corporate tax rate. He added that Trump failing to follow through on his key campaign promise to release all of the remaining Epstein evidence the FBI is still sitting on could be the final nail in his political coffin.

"The sorry state of the economy will eventually be Trump’s undoing as it was Joe Biden’s," Bannon wrote. "But the Epstein scandal gives Trump great grief in the here and now. His failure to follow up on his promise to release the infamous Epstein List of sexual predators has painted a giant kick me sign on his backside."

Click here to read Bannon's full op-ed in The Hill.

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