Since his return to office, President Donald Trump has missed few chances to flex the power he wields over the nation’s most formidable institutions and its wealthiest people. So when the White House announced that Trump would host the latest in a series of dinners with top business executives, this time including JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon and the chief executive of Nasdaq, reporters in the White House press pool prepared to watch Trump show off.

Nope. Last night’s dinner was closed to the press. No reporter was even given a glance. And later, when the White House held a signing ceremony for the president to officially end the longest federal-government shutdown in history, the reporters present were quickly whisked out of the Oval Office. Today, too, he didn’t talk to the press after signing an executive order alongside the first lady in the East Room. The president, to be clear, had not suddenly become camera-shy. But he had indicated to aides that he didn’t want to face reporters’ questions, because every inquiry was going to be about the one subject that Trump, for all his power, simply can’t make go away.

Jeffrey Epstein is dead. But the disgraced financier and sex offender continues to shadow Trump. The storyline’s reemergence yesterday—with the release of thousands of Epstein’s emails, some of which highlight his relationship with Trump—delivered another blow to a