'Playing with fires': Trump faces 'dilemma' over Epstein controversy

Fareed Zakaria, CNN’s veteran foreign affairs analyst and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, warned in his article published Sunday that President Donald Trump now confronts a political conundrum of his own making: the conspiracy theories he popularized and profited from have become demands he must now satisfy.

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll cited by Zakaria, 69% of Americans, including 62% of Republicans, believe the government is hiding Epstein’s alleged client list.

Yet Trump, who built his brand on stoking distrust, now leads the very institutions accused of secrecy, and refuses to release key records. Zakaria asked: “Why will he not reveal them?

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The author traced Trump’s political rise to his early embrace of conspiracy theories — most notably, birtherism alleging Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. — and his ongoing promotion of ever broader conspiracies involving the “deep state” and elite cover-ups.

Zakaria argued that the epistemic trap confronting Trump reveals deep irony: by encouraging conspiracies, he energized a base hungry for revelations. As president, though, any admission of no major findings risks undermining the very narrative his base expects.

"This is the dilemma in which Donald Trump finds himself. Whatever he does to deflect and distract from the Jeffrey Epstein morass only deepens the suspicions — including those about the two men’s relationship," he wrote.

He warned: "Trump’s ferocious response to the Epstein affair will likely only deepen the public’s distrust toward institutions and politicians, create more online radicalization, and further hollow out our polarized political ecosystem. But he is playing with fires that may for the first time, if not consume him, then burn him badly."

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Meanwhile, as the Epstein controversy continues to dominate headlines, Trump shifted the spotlight to a different accusation on Saturday —doubling down on his claim that former Vice President Harris paid celebrities to endorse her during the 2024 election.

Echoing earlier allegations that Harris compensated Beyoncé, Oprah, and Al Sharpton to promote her White House bid, the president insisted they should be “prosecuted.”

“YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO. Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He added: “Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Trump previously made similar claims about Harris earlier in the year and toward the end of last year.