 "US President Donald Trump. Reuters File")
US President Donald Trump is in rough waters with his supporters after it was reported on Wednesday that his name appears in the US justice department files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . Amid the backlash, the Trump administration is in damage control mode, with the White House spokesperson denying the Wall Street Journal report.
As per the news outlet, Trump was told in May by his attorney general, Pam Bondi, that he is named in the now notorious Epstein Files. Citing senior administration officials, the WSJ reported that Trump was also informed that many other high-profile figures were named and the department did not plan to release any more documents related to the investigation.
Amid the whole scandal, the Trump administration attempted to downplay the relationship between the president and the infamous British financier. In a statment to media, Spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote: “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”
While all this is happening, Trump is utilising another tactic to calm the fury over the Epstein scandal — the tactic of diversion. When the DoJ and FBI memo watering down the Epstein case sparked outrage among his supporters, Trump described the files as “pretty boring stuff”. The Potus accused his voters of believing what he referred to as a “ radical left hoax ”, which is being spread by his opposition, in a bid to discredit him.
However, the recent moves by Trump are now being seen as diversion tactics by many.
Trump’s 3 diversion tactics
- Crusade against Obama
Earlier this month, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard appeared at the White House to back Trump’s now-infamous, widely doubted claims of “treason” by former US President Barack Obama. On Friday, Gabbard released a slew of documents that she said implicate members of the Obama administration for “treasonous” behaviour during the 2016 election.
Gabbard accused the Obama administration of falsely tying Trump to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. On Wednesday, she said at a presser that Obama and his key allies had misled the public and manipulated intelligence to undermine Trump.
“They tried to steal the election,” Trump said at the White House as he claimed Obama had sought to undermine his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton. Amid the chaos, Obama finally broke his silence over the matter . His office took an unusual step of issuing an emphatic refutation to Trump’s accusation.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” the statement read. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," it furthered. Many believe that Trump is raking up these issues to cover up the Epstein scandal.
Release of MLK Files
While the Trump administration has been holding on to the Epstein Files, they released a trove of records on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr , including FBI surveillance files on the civil rights leader. A court-imposed order kept the documents totalling 230,000 pages, blocked from public view since 1977.
Interestingly, the release of the files was opposed by prominent members of King’s families. A statement from his two living children condemned “any attempts to misuse these documents in ways intended to undermine our father’s legacy”. Soon after the files were released , Trump’s critics noted that they were made public as the administration is accused of a lack of transparency over files relating to influential sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose 2019 jail death was ruled a suicide.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton lambasted the Trump administration and said the disclosure of the King files was “a desperate attempt to distract” from “the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unravelling of his credibility”.
The NFL name controversy
In another bid to distract public attention, Trump reignited a dispute by pushing the Washington Commanders to revert to their former name “Redskins”. The old name was widely denounced as a racial slur against Native Americans.
In a post on TruthSocial, Trump threatened to block the NFL team’s stadium unless the team changes its name back to Redskins. “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” he wrote in the post.
Trump went ahead with his cultural crusade by targeting Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, calling on them to return to the name “Cleveland Indians,” despite the name being racially insensitive. Many took postshots at Trump’s proposition, recalling how he was bashing Obama when he suggested that then-Washington Redskins should change its name. At that time, the business-mogul suggested that Obama should “focus on important issues”, something Trump critics are now asking him to focus on.
Hence, it will be interesting to see if the president would deploy more such diversion tactics to cover up the Epstein saga.