The Jeffrey Epstein files saga is far from over, even after President Donald Trump suddenly reversed himself Sunday night and told Republicans to vote for releasing them.
But regardless of how it shakes out, the drama around the files has punctured Trump’s aura of invincibility within the MAGA movement in a way few, if any, things have before. And it has proved a massive unforced political error by Trump.
The man who has for a decade dominated his base and told it what to care about has backed down when that base decided its priorities didn’t align with his own.
That’s a remarkable political moment — and an unfortuitous one for Trump, particularly right now.
The reversal, and where it leaves us
The big news overnight was that Trump seemed to relent after months of fighting an effort in the House to force the release of all Epstein files from the Justice Department. A significant number of Republicans had been expected to defect from Trump’s opposition to releasing the files in this week’s vote.
“House Republicans should vote to release the
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