The Scholar Gypsies: Trump on the Brink?

‘Trumpism was never about Trump. It was always about Trump’s people — MAGA. And these are proudly ethical people. They are the salt of the earth of America.'

Finally, kompromat on the mat?

This conversion on the Scholar Gypsies, between Gerry O’Neill, Thomas Sheridan and myself, was steamed live on Wednesday last, July 16th. It is an interim assessment of a story in flux, and therefore seeks to address the fundamentals rather that attaching specific weight to continuing revelations. Even since its transmission, things have changed, and the tenor and meaning of the Jeffrey Epstein saga appear to be shifting. In time, this may vindicate the reticence to be detected here about capitulating to the know-alls, pessimists and Jeremiahs, and precipitately donning the black cap to deliver a verdict on the public life of Donald J. Trump.

There is a mystery here — several mysteries, in fact. Why is Trump behaving so uncharacteristically defensively in apparently seeking to close down the Epstein revelations before they are even loosed? This does not seem to achieve the required qualities of the 5D chess, for which he is frequently lionised — or at least not competently executed 5D chess. His clumsy attempt to shut down a reporter’s question about Epstein was shocking and head-wrecking. His dominant visible emotion appeared to be panic — but why? Panic about what? Did he for a moment believe that his enemies might finally have caught up with him, outfoxed him, or left behind a trap to be sprung by its victim, blundering in like a fox who has known cuter days.

We tend to assume that the (at least nominally) all-powerful are ipso facto all-knowing, but is there something here that even the President of the United States does not understand? Could this be the reason for his erraticism?

In this discussion, we draw a light line around Donald Trump, not to reject or desert him, but to accentuate that Trumpism is, first, foremost and last, about those who have elected Trump, especially those hardcore followers who have been prepared to stand with him come Hell and high water. Now, they baulk, but that baulking is not a symptom of fickleness or unfaith, but of ethicality. MAGA, despite the massive propaganda campaigns designed to proclaim the direct opposite, was always an ethical movement. What it stood for was ‘America First’, not ‘Trump First’, and certainly not ‘GOP First’. This moment of confusion could therefore only result in the doubts that have arisen and spread like a stain.

There could never be — and is not — any scintilla of doubt about the necessity to get to the bottom of the crimes attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and his cronies. If, in the end, these crimes are established as having also implicated Donald Trump, then he too must be called to account. That is the MAGA position, and it is the correct one. We cannot say, at this moment, what is likely to emerge as the full truth about this. What we can say is that Trump has done himself or his supporter no favours by the manner in which he has dealt with these matters over the past couple of weeks. But there are many complexities at play in this saga, and many bad actors still operating in the shadows, so speculation is unlikely to be helpful or reliable. Let us hazard simply that this farrago has many of the hallmatks of several past attempts to put Donald Trump in legirons, and all of these have so far failed. The ludicrous letter, attributed to Trump, recently published by the Wall Street Journal, carries more than a hint of the desperation that has underpinned many of these attempt at a takedown. This may not square with the mood of panic in the White House, but it is certainly something to be observed and not forgotten.

In this conversation, Gerry, Thomas and I seek to set out the known facts and possibilities of this saga, while avoiding overeach, partisanship or unfairness based in limited information. We also seek to explore the potential losses for America and the world, were Donald Trump to feature centrally in the tragic ending (in the classical sense) to his decade-long attempt to correct the drifts of our culture, were he to fall not primarily by dint of the conniving of his enemies, but on account of a fatal flaw in his own character. This was the dream script of his enemies from the outset. Whether it will come to pass remains, even now, in the realm of the unknown,

There are those who, scrambling to the high moral ground, will denounce us for being ‘soft on Trump’ or worse, but let us see how things unfold in the coming weeks before judging such critics also, for judge them we must, since everything here demands judgment of the most intense kind. Hindsight has often been depicted as the most reliable science; but placing the weight of speculation on tentative and ambiguous facts, and then condemning the caution or moderation of honest brokers is rather less so. It is likely that this conversation is merely one of several we shall engage in before this saga reaches its end. To watch and listen, click on the arrow below.

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