Let me state from the outset that there are really only three options as it pertains to Trump’s association with Epstein.
- Trump was sufficiently dense not to know what was going on right in front of him.
- Trump knew that Epstein was having sex with underage girls and trafficking them, but he just didn’t care enough to tell authorities or to do much of anything about it.
- He was a participant in it all.
I think that there is enough in the public record to suggest that #1 is not a viable option. I would submit that either #2 or #3 makes Trump unfit for office and should be enough to cause any number of voters to shun him and anyone associated with him (granted, due to partisan rationalization, that number will not be as large as it should be).
I think that it matters that we, as a country, come to terms with the kind of person Trump is. Granted, I could make a list of reasons he is unfit for office (and, indeed, do so on a regular basis), but as this Epstein business roils on, I can’t help but think about how almost any reasonable person would react to the following if they read it in a book outside of the context of partisan politics.
It seems relevant to be reminded that we know that Jeffrey Epstein engaged in the sexual abuse of over 1,000 girls, some as young as 14 years of age. And we know that he and Trump were friends for many years, but had a falling out in the 2004-2007 period, over issues such as Epstein poaching a Mar-a-Lago employee, harassing a member’s teenage daughter, and/or a contest over buying a specific Florida property.
Let’s approach it like this. Let’s say you were reading a history book and there was a chapter on Jeffry Epstein and his friend Anton Orangeman. The chapter detailed Epstein’s plea deal linked to him having sex with 14-year-old girls, his later indictment, and the conviction of his close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, over her role in procuring girls for Epstein (as well as participating in the abuse). The chapter quite clearly spells out the crimes of which Epstein was associated, even if, between the plea deal and his later suicide, he was never fully prosecuted for them all.
The chapter then goes on to detail the following about A. Organgeman.
- Orangeman was a known philanderer, having been documented to have cheated on all three of his wives (to include one case wherein he paid hush money to a porn star he slept with).
- He famously said that famous persons, like himself, could do whatever they wanted with women they encountered, including just kissing them, or, in fact, grabbing them “by the pussy.”
- He was found liable in court for just that exact kind of behavior.
- At least 26 women have publicly accused Orangeman of sexual abuse.
- He once commented that he hoped his infant daughter would have large breasts.
- He once commented that if his daughter weren’t his daughter, he might be dating her. (See also additional reported comments here.)
- Once, he told a radio host that it was okay to call his daughter “a piece of ass.“
- Once, in response to a question about what he had in common with his daughter, he stated, on television, “Well, I was going to say sex, but I can’t relate that to her.”
- Orangeman was documented to have walked into the dressing room of the Miss Teen USA contest, where girls were in various states of undress.
- He told New York Magazine in 2002, the following: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy.” […] “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
- Photos abound of Orangeman and Epstein having fun at parties (some examples).
- He wrote a provocative birthday note to Epstein.
- Orangeman fought efforts to release information about Epstein until it became evident that he wasn’t going to be able to stop it.
Any reasonably-minded individual who reads this list of facts would have to come to the conclusion that, at the barest minimum that Orangeman was a misogynist with an unhealthy relationship to sex. And, further, as a person who was friends with Epstein, seen partying with Epstein, had to have known what Epstein was doing, and that the odds that he also participated would have to be pretty high.
And so, since that list is obviously about Trump, this is the conclusion that I think has to be reached.
If Trump were a known abuser of substances, even if just legal ones, and he hung around with a known drug dealer for decades, would anyone seriously think that Trump never partook of his friend’s wares?
This is all off the top of my head–I suspect I could easily lengthen the list. It does not include the recent Epstein e-mails that note that Trump knew “about the girls” and that add to the general preponderance of evidence that Trump was involved in some way.
I know that Trump is almost certainly not going to face a criminal trial over any of this. But I think that people need to understand who it is that they, and the party they ostensibly trust, supported.
