I think Tim's right: Trump really is high on his own supply and overestimates how much sway he has on their ability to perceive reality. There really was a Jedi mind trick aspect to how he was telling his supporters to move on or turn in their MAGA cards. He may have actually thought that's how these things worked. As the man himself used to say: Sad!
I have listened to a lot of analysis of the Trump/Epstein thing and one of the issues that Nicolle Wallace posed to Tim was why this is different than earlier sex or criminal scandals. Yet there is a key component that no one is mentioning that is essential for understanding how Trump is behaving in this whole thing. It is actually visible through the E. Jean Carroll case. There are two interrelated things that get directly to Trumps most powerful insecurities and that is when you question his money and, related to that, when you question his sexual prowess. That was the main focus of his condemnation of the Steele Dossier, the pee pee tape. One of the reasons his base has excused the sexual misconduct is because a lot of them are anti-Me Too and are happy to believe that Trump might have been a little aggressive, but that the ADULT women in those cases may have asked for it or some other nonsense they use to blame victims or muddy the circumstances.
But with Epstein, many of the victims were underage. That inflicts incredible damage on Trump's image as a millionaire/billionaire "playboy" and instead turns him into a pedophile, whether or not he actually had any sexual contact with minors. And his entire identity was built on being a big-city rich guy who could have any woman he wanted, with the money and women being somewhat interdependent and interchangeable as symbols of his masculine power. THAT'S why this bothers him so much. He knows that there is likely tons of material about him and Epstein, maybe even him spending time on the island, and it triggers some primordial insecurity in him that people will realize that it was all BS and always was. Moreover, he knows that himself and, while he isn't concerned about the morality of it, feeling like a pedo- puts him at war with this mythological version of himself where he was a rich and powerful guy who did what other rich and powerful guys did. That is totally different to him and his supporters than the sexual misconduct with adult women. It means that Trump's ability to attract women was always about abusing his power and privilege and had nothing to do with him being handsome (which he never was), rich, or sophisticated. SO rather than being a JFK Jr., who was all three of those things, Trump once again feels like some scummy, outer-borough fraud who lacked the polish and pedigree to be suave, no matter how charismatic he was or not.
Pedophilia is a very serious crime, the most serious short of murder.
The Maga republicans and followers constantly calling anybody else a pedophile when they want to insult them and retaliate is just so demented.
It’s not some adjective to use when you’re angry at somebody.
They have twisted and manipulated everything so far out of reality and the truth talking and looking at everything through the most twisted distorted lens. It is hard to believe so many people could be on that page.
This obsession they’ve had from the beginning starting with their “pizza gate” insisting Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were abusing children in the basement of a pizza parlor has been crazy .
All these conspiracy /rumors they’ve been obsessed with claiming they’re trying to protect children has done nothing but deter and take away from the actual efforts and resources by others to legitimately and legally address and go after pedophiles predators, preying on children abusing them and exploiting them.
Many good people who are independents, democrats, legal officials have had their efforts minimized and thwarted by this Maga obsession.
Resources have been wasted, time in the Senate and in the House wasted right along with taxpayer dollars listening to their NONSENSE instead of talking about the issue, legitimately and in reality.
We don’t have to go over who’s responsible for putting all this out for public consumption.
They say they worry about children, but they’re not concerned about the bigotry, the hatred, the racism, the misogyny, the lack of civility, the name-calling mocking and ridiculing the gaslighting the pathological lying, the twisted version of Christianity, which is spiritual abuse they pass on to the children that hear them. All of it emotional abuse.
Not to mention all the programs they just cut that benefit children to live a more healthy, prosperous life and to thrive.
Is it possible this conspiracy and rumors surrounding pedophilia was started by people trying to cover for themselves?
It is important to stay emotionally grounded in truth, reality, good values, integrity, honor, and what is normal.
The norms of decency, civility, character, integrity, and honor have been broken.
FFOTUS remains a disgrace plain and simple. Those who continue to support his shit embrace dystopian ethos and will be crushed accordingly. Blue Revolution now!!
Always good takes & info Tim, which is why I'm a paid subscriber. In thinking about the Epstein files or list of pedo participants why not reach out to former Prince Andrew for a list. He has to have a sword to grind, eh?
Ms. Maxwell is in danger. She should get a list to her attorney, if he or she can't be bought by trump or his people. Once it's in the open, which Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, John Stewart and others should all discuss on their individual shows. Heck, send a copy to the WSJ. Then, trump is toast. I yield back my time.
As a NYer, I always assumed trump was in the Epstein files, so I never understood why the MAGAs were so hot to expose them. I guess they never made that leap.
Trump apologists can’t imagine his using a $64 word like “enigma” in the Epstein birthday card. One possible explanation: the 2001 feature film by that same name about the Bletchley Park code breakers. Not hard to imagine a popular term like this slipping into Trump’s, or another author’s, lexicon a year plus later, with a pun-ish coded meaning that would have been apparent and seemingly “smart” in a smarmy kind of way. Occam’s razor . . . . This also, of course, would complicate, one would think, conspiratorial speculations about the deep state having created the card. Short of some undisclosed mode of time travel.
“Enigma” is an anagram for “gamine”. That’s the “wonderful secret”: enigmas never age, and neither do “gamines”, because Epstein stopped “dating” his victims once they reached 18 or so.
I think they must already believe in time travel. How else could they explain how Obama's birth announcement appeared in two Honolulu newspapers in 1961?
Shane Gillia was not mocking nor attacking Trump. He was gentle and soft with his jokes. His jokes about Black athletes especially the female Black athletes were vicious and unkind.
Norm MacDonald would be relentless with Donaldi Trump for being a child rapist adjacent celebrity as shown by this recent letter and the many stories now emerging of how close Trump and Epstein were with regard to young models.
Tim, Brilliant representation on the entire maga/Epstein landscape. Tremendous exposure for the Bulwark. At this point, We don't really care how it happens just as long as Trump and his inner circle get the punishment they so richly deserve. Ultimately, Trump has disgraced himself his entire life and being humiliated and disgraced must be his final judgment.
She dropped the lawsuit and appears to have disappeared. Even her lawyer said she didn't know how to contact her. So it's impossible for reporters to verify anything.
Trump arrived on the political scene with the Birthergate BS, so he got the racists and the conspiracy rubes on board right from day one. He was going to expose everything, from chemtrails to Area 51. Now he's calling them weak idiots.
I think Tim's right: Trump really is high on his own supply and overestimates how much sway he has on their ability to perceive reality. There really was a Jedi mind trick aspect to how he was telling his supporters to move on or turn in their MAGA cards. He may have actually thought that's how these things worked. As the man himself used to say: Sad!
I have listened to a lot of analysis of the Trump/Epstein thing and one of the issues that Nicolle Wallace posed to Tim was why this is different than earlier sex or criminal scandals. Yet there is a key component that no one is mentioning that is essential for understanding how Trump is behaving in this whole thing. It is actually visible through the E. Jean Carroll case. There are two interrelated things that get directly to Trumps most powerful insecurities and that is when you question his money and, related to that, when you question his sexual prowess. That was the main focus of his condemnation of the Steele Dossier, the pee pee tape. One of the reasons his base has excused the sexual misconduct is because a lot of them are anti-Me Too and are happy to believe that Trump might have been a little aggressive, but that the ADULT women in those cases may have asked for it or some other nonsense they use to blame victims or muddy the circumstances.
But with Epstein, many of the victims were underage. That inflicts incredible damage on Trump's image as a millionaire/billionaire "playboy" and instead turns him into a pedophile, whether or not he actually had any sexual contact with minors. And his entire identity was built on being a big-city rich guy who could have any woman he wanted, with the money and women being somewhat interdependent and interchangeable as symbols of his masculine power. THAT'S why this bothers him so much. He knows that there is likely tons of material about him and Epstein, maybe even him spending time on the island, and it triggers some primordial insecurity in him that people will realize that it was all BS and always was. Moreover, he knows that himself and, while he isn't concerned about the morality of it, feeling like a pedo- puts him at war with this mythological version of himself where he was a rich and powerful guy who did what other rich and powerful guys did. That is totally different to him and his supporters than the sexual misconduct with adult women. It means that Trump's ability to attract women was always about abusing his power and privilege and had nothing to do with him being handsome (which he never was), rich, or sophisticated. SO rather than being a JFK Jr., who was all three of those things, Trump once again feels like some scummy, outer-borough fraud who lacked the polish and pedigree to be suave, no matter how charismatic he was or not.
Pedophilia is a very serious crime, the most serious short of murder.
The Maga republicans and followers constantly calling anybody else a pedophile when they want to insult them and retaliate is just so demented.
It’s not some adjective to use when you’re angry at somebody.
They have twisted and manipulated everything so far out of reality and the truth talking and looking at everything through the most twisted distorted lens. It is hard to believe so many people could be on that page.
This obsession they’ve had from the beginning starting with their “pizza gate” insisting Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were abusing children in the basement of a pizza parlor has been crazy .
All these conspiracy /rumors they’ve been obsessed with claiming they’re trying to protect children has done nothing but deter and take away from the actual efforts and resources by others to legitimately and legally address and go after pedophiles predators, preying on children abusing them and exploiting them.
Many good people who are independents, democrats, legal officials have had their efforts minimized and thwarted by this Maga obsession.
Resources have been wasted, time in the Senate and in the House wasted right along with taxpayer dollars listening to their NONSENSE instead of talking about the issue, legitimately and in reality.
We don’t have to go over who’s responsible for putting all this out for public consumption.
They say they worry about children, but they’re not concerned about the bigotry, the hatred, the racism, the misogyny, the lack of civility, the name-calling mocking and ridiculing the gaslighting the pathological lying, the twisted version of Christianity, which is spiritual abuse they pass on to the children that hear them. All of it emotional abuse.
Not to mention all the programs they just cut that benefit children to live a more healthy, prosperous life and to thrive.
Is it possible this conspiracy and rumors surrounding pedophilia was started by people trying to cover for themselves?
It is important to stay emotionally grounded in truth, reality, good values, integrity, honor, and what is normal.
The norms of decency, civility, character, integrity, and honor have been broken.
FFOTUS remains a disgrace plain and simple. Those who continue to support his shit embrace dystopian ethos and will be crushed accordingly. Blue Revolution now!!
I'm amazed to see the old podcasters become The NEW FBI: NOTHING TO SEE HERE! https://bsky.app/profile/opsan.bsky.social/post/3luaos2kbl222
Always good takes & info Tim, which is why I'm a paid subscriber. In thinking about the Epstein files or list of pedo participants why not reach out to former Prince Andrew for a list. He has to have a sword to grind, eh?
Ms. Maxwell is in danger. She should get a list to her attorney, if he or she can't be bought by trump or his people. Once it's in the open, which Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, John Stewart and others should all discuss on their individual shows. Heck, send a copy to the WSJ. Then, trump is toast. I yield back my time.
We missed you Tim!
As a NYer, I always assumed trump was in the Epstein files, so I never understood why the MAGAs were so hot to expose them. I guess they never made that leap.
They are not the brightest bulbs.
I normally hate the "vocab cops", Nicole, but it's either "uproar" or "outcry", not "outroar".
I also wondered why this of all the illegal, disgusting things this horrible person has done makes them dislike him🤦♀️
Trump is breaking his kayfabe compact with the conspiracy crowd, and they feel betrayed.
Trump apologists can’t imagine his using a $64 word like “enigma” in the Epstein birthday card. One possible explanation: the 2001 feature film by that same name about the Bletchley Park code breakers. Not hard to imagine a popular term like this slipping into Trump’s, or another author’s, lexicon a year plus later, with a pun-ish coded meaning that would have been apparent and seemingly “smart” in a smarmy kind of way. Occam’s razor . . . . This also, of course, would complicate, one would think, conspiratorial speculations about the deep state having created the card. Short of some undisclosed mode of time travel.
“Enigma” is an anagram for “gamine”. That’s the “wonderful secret”: enigmas never age, and neither do “gamines”, because Epstein stopped “dating” his victims once they reached 18 or so.
I think they must already believe in time travel. How else could they explain how Obama's birth announcement appeared in two Honolulu newspapers in 1961?
Shane Gillia was not mocking nor attacking Trump. He was gentle and soft with his jokes. His jokes about Black athletes especially the female Black athletes were vicious and unkind.
Norm MacDonald would be relentless with Donaldi Trump for being a child rapist adjacent celebrity as shown by this recent letter and the many stories now emerging of how close Trump and Epstein were with regard to young models.
Tim, Brilliant representation on the entire maga/Epstein landscape. Tremendous exposure for the Bulwark. At this point, We don't really care how it happens just as long as Trump and his inner circle get the punishment they so richly deserve. Ultimately, Trump has disgraced himself his entire life and being humiliated and disgraced must be his final judgment.
Why isn't anyone talking about the Katie Johnson lawsuit accusing BOTH Epstein and Trump of assaulting her when she was 13?
She dropped the lawsuit and appears to have disappeared. Even her lawyer said she didn't know how to contact her. So it's impossible for reporters to verify anything.
Trump arrived on the political scene with the Birthergate BS, so he got the racists and the conspiracy rubes on board right from day one. He was going to expose everything, from chemtrails to Area 51. Now he's calling them weak idiots.
He always believed they were idiots , now he is just verbalizing it
If either party wanted to do something about international pedophile rings, half the Catholic Church hierarchy would be in prison right now.