President Donald Trump’s super powers as a public figure have long included the ability to redirect, escape and deny.
But the well -used methods of the republican to change the subject when a difficult subject sticking politically does not work because his white house repels the persistent disorders of his generally faithful base about the sexual offender condemned Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
Trump reprimanded journalists, claimed ignorance and offered distractions in order to cancel him questions about Epstein and suspicion swirling still in the case of the disgrace financier for years after his death in 2019. The request for answers only developed.
“For a very good president and administration to control a story, it is the one that was more difficult,” said Erin Maguire, a republican strategist, a former spokesperson for Trump’s campaign.
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Unlike the political crises which assumed Trump’s first mandate, including two dismissal and an investigation into the alleged collusion of the campaign with Russia, people propeling the push for more transparency on Epstein were largely its supporters, not its political enemies.
Trump has nourished his base with conspiracy theories for years, including the false “Birther” says that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump advisers have also attracted plots about Epstein to declare them without being in office.
It did not go well with the president’s right base, which has long believed that the government covered Epstein’s ties with the rich and the powerful.
“Donald Trump has led a Ponzi program based on propaganda for a better decade and he finally catches up,” said Geoff Duncan, former Lieutenant-Governor of Georgia and Trump’s critic. “The far right is just dug. They are determined to get this information out.”
The White House rejected reports on Trump’s ties with Epstein as “false news”, although he recognized that his name appears in documents related to the Epstein case. Trump and Epstein were friends for years before falling.
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“The only people who do not seem to shake this story from their minds to a track are the media and the Democrats,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields.
Before leaving for a trip to Scotland Friday, the president again urged people to draw their attention elsewhere.
“People should really focus on how the country is fine,” Trump told journalists, shifting that a meticulous exam was not given to others on Epstein orbit. “They don’t talk about them, they talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy.”
The art of distraction
In recent weeks, Trump has used a typical diversion game book.
He reprimanded a journalist for asking Epstein questions in the White House cabinet room. He said in the oval office that he did not preach special attention to the issue. And, with the help of Tulsi Gabbard, his national intelligence director, he exploded Obama in a betrayal for the way he dealt with the Intelligence in 2016 on Russian interference in the US elections.
Trump did his distraction tour on Thursday in the federal reserve, where he fought with President Jerome Powell on construction costs and put pressure for lower interest rates.
This said that the republican strategist Brad Todd was more effective than focusing on Obama in 2016, which voters had already pleaded by putting Trump in power.
“The Tulsi Gabbard is looking back, I think, is not the way for them to rotate,” said Todd, noting that Trump’s trip to the Fed has highlighted the question of economic affordability and taking a Washington institution. “If I were him, I would go to the Fed every day until the rates are reduced.”
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The Democrats have made Trump’s efforts to move on, feeling a political weakness for the president and the divisions of the Republican Party that they can exploit while their own political stock is low following last year’s X -ray.
A Reuters / Ipsos survey this month has shown that most Americans think that Trump administration is hiding information on Epstein, creating an opportunity for Democrats to pressure.
Trump supporters and many Democrats are impatient to see a release of government files linked to Epstein and his case, which the Ministry of Justice initially promised to deliver.
“Yesterday was another example of Trump people trying to throw so many things against the wall to avoid Epstein files,” Mark Warner, an American Democratic Senator of Virginia, said in an article on Gabbard’s accusations against Obama on Thursday.
Trump’s allies see administration’s efforts to change the subject as part of a normal part of a total strategy.
“They always go to 100 miles on time. Each department, each secretary of the cabinet, everyone is at full speed that covers the region with news,” said Republican strategist Maguire.
Trump has already resisted more difficult periods before, and his conservative base, despite his frustration in the face of files, is widely satisfied with Trump’s work on immigration and the economy. In a reuters / ipsos July survey, 56% of republican respondents favored raids at the administration’s workplace, while 24% were opposed and 20% uncertain.
Sounder Frank Luntz noted that Trump had faced crime convictions and other criminal charges, but had always been re -elected last year.
“We were in this same situation several times before and he escaped each time,” said Luntz.
