Trump's 'Operation Epstein Distraction' videos targeting young men: analysis

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Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released additional photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, including ones of Donald Trump. (Photo: Epstein Estate/House Oversight and Reform Committee)

President Donald Trump is pandering to young men in his latest attempt to promote his war against Iran — and yet commenters perceive his efforts as “Operation Epstein Distraction.”

Comments like “Operation Epstein Distraction” and “GI Joke” appeared on X under the propaganda videos, according to The Guardian. One video captioned “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY” mixes footage from “Braveheart,” “Gladiator” and “Iron Man” with seemingly real footage of American strikes against Iran.

“It is unclear if the White House obtained permissions for the film and music in these clips, though it seems not,” The Guardian reported.

The Trump administration posted two other videos. In a video captioned “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue,” the propagandists seem to emulate the famous “Call of Duty” video game series, complete with a first-person-shooter format, blasting music and clips of destruction (although some of this is from real-life combat). When targets are destroyed, the viewer is said to have scored another 100 points. The other video, which seems to be inspired by the “Grand Theft Auto” video game series, showed the word “WASTED” on screen against periscope footage of an American torpedo destroying an Iranian warship.

The “Operation Epstein Distraction” quip refers to the persisting theories that Trump is only invading Iran to distract from declassified documents detailing his horrifying allegations against the president related to his friendship with the late convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Recently documents that Trump previously tried to suppress detailed an accusation that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in the 1980s.

"With respect to this Trump accuser," MS NOW legal analyst Lisa Rubin told host Chris Jansing, "she is now detailing, in these documents, how she came to meet Donald Trump — the assault that she says she experienced at his hands. And perhaps, maybe most importantly of all, we understand now why the FBI might have stopped talking to her in October of 2019. This woman told the FBI that she understood that the statutes of limitations with respect to her allegations against both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump had long since passed. And therefore, she said to them, what's the point of my giving you any more detail?"

By covering up these documents and trying to distract the public, CNN’s Aaron Blake argued this week that Trump is only making things worse for himself in terms of the optics of Epstein.

“The American people don’t need any help being suspicious about the government’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein,” Blake reported. “But the Trump administration keeps giving them more reason to be anyway.”

Speaking with AlterNet in February, economist Dr. Robert J. Shapiro — a former top adviser to President Bill Clinton, who is also in the files and whom Trump has tried to scapegoat as a substitute for himself — argued that Trump’s efforts are “political theater.”

“No one believes that President Clinton was anything more than an acquaintance of Jeffrey Epstein, all before Epstein was convicted of prostitution with a young girl in 2008,” Shapiro told AlterNet. “President Clinton knew him in the same way many, many others did—as part of a large social network of wealthy acquaintances.”

He later continued, ”The hearing today is nothing more than political theater likely mounted to draw the public attention away from the tens or hundreds of thousands of instances in which President Trump is named in the Epstein files, even as the Justice Department has held back a reported 3 million pages from the files.”

In response to Shapiro’s comments, President Donald Trump’s White House told AlterNet that he had been “totally exonerated.”

“Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told AlterNet in a statement. “And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”

Jackson concluded, “Meanwhile, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender.”

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