'Deflection': Trump team’s flailing Epstein defenses growing weaker by the minute

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaking to reporters on March 17, 2025 (Joshua Sukoff/ Shutterstock.com)

President Donald Trump has been an incredibly resilient figure in U.S. politics. Despite two impeachments and four criminal indictments — one of which included a "guilty" verdict on 34 counts — he won both the electoral vote and the popular vote in the United States' 2024 presidential election and is now seven and one-half months into his second presidency.

Trump has overcome one controversy after another. Now, he is facing a controversy that won't go away: the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) failure to release all of its files on billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt are attacking the Epstein controversy as a "hoax" perpetrated by Democrats. But New York Times reporter Luke Broadwater, in an article published on September 9, emphasizes that Trump and his allies are flailing badly in their efforts to make the Epstein controversy disappear.

"With the vast powers of the presidency at his disposal," Broadwater explains, "(Trump) often succeeds in pivoting the national conversation to focus on political terrain he finds more favorable, like immigration or crime. But for weeks now, there has been one controversy the president has been unable to evade: the public clamor over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased sex offender. Now, with the release this week of new information from Mr. Epstein's estate, including a suggestive note apparently signed by Mr. Trump, the drip-drip-drip of revelations is complicating the White House strategy of brushing off the entire controversy."

Attempts at deflection, according to Broadwater, aren't working for Trump or Leavitt with the Epstein files.

"The White House has denied for weeks that Mr. Trump sent a bawdy birthday note to Mr. Epstein in 2003, the subject of an earlier Wall Street Journal report," Broadwater notes. "But on Monday, (September 8), the House Oversight Committee obtained the document and released it. Suddenly, there it was out in the open for all to see. The drawing of a naked woman. The strange reference to a 'secret' shared between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein."

Broadwater adds, "In response, Ms. Leavitt at first deflected. She accused Democrats of opportunistically clamoring to release the Epstein documents while Mr. Trump was president — something they did not make a major push for during the Biden presidency."

The more Trump tries to move the conversation away from Epstein, according to Broadwater, the more they flail.

"Throughout the month of July," Broadwater observes, "Mr. Trump repeatedly attempted to instruct the media and fellow Republicans to move on from the Epstein files. In a post on Truth Social, he urged the GOP to 'not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.' But the clamor for the files persisted, and the president repeatedly referred to the controversy as a 'hoax,' angering Mr. Epstein's victims."

Broadwater continues, "After The Wall Street Journal reported on the Epstein birthday note, Mr. Trump filed suit, accusing the paper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, of defaming him…. Democrats have seized on the controversy. But more concerning for Mr. Trump, he has not been able to convince all Republicans to back off an effort to release the files."

Luke Broadwater's full New York Times article is available at this link.

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