Dangling a Carrot in the Middle of a Room

July 29, 2025

Many years ago, the named Jeffrey Epstein came to light. Yes he was a millionaire with many millionaire friends but that wasn’t his only claim to fame. After many years of investigation, in 2019 Epstein was arrested for the sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Thirty five days after his arrest, Epstein is found dead in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Cause of death? Suicide. However, the conspiracy theories began stemming from the names of the rich and famous who apparently befriended Mr. Epstein, flew on his airplane and were frequent visitors on his island. Names like Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

Of course the entirety of the Right Wing (including Trump) would go out of it’s way not to mention his Highness. The emphasis was on Clinton and the possibility of some Hollywood insiders, or other liberal elites. The Republicans were chomping at the bit to get their hands on that golden list. Following Epstein’s death, his ex-girlfriend/wingman Ghislaine Maxwell was set to go on trial. During her trial the records were sealed. In 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein. She was sentenced in federal court in New York City to 20 years of imprisonment.

You would think that after Maxwell’s sentencing that the story would end. Not so fast. Not in our current age of conspiracy theories, propaganda and good old fashion red meat being thrown out to the MAGA base. Since Maxwell’s imprisonment, the right wing netherworld have been spinning yarns about this “list” of clients. That damned Bill Clinton is ALL over that list, they’ve been told, they needed to see. In the darkest circles of the dark web, they’ve been talking about it, salivating about getting their hands on it. Then finally, a glimmer of light, their god, their idol of all idols, Donald J Trump, delivered the promise of all promises during his campaign. If he wins, he will release the Epstein files.

This is it! This is what they wanted! Their man was going to do what neither Obama nor what Biden would do, release that list. Collectively rubbing their hands together, right wing podcasters like Dan Bongino and Kash Patel were like little boys waiting for Christmas morning! Bongino swore he’d never let the Epstein list go and now, gosh darn it, he’ll be able to see it with his own two eyes.

Well now, hold on just a bit. Before this delicious piece of meat gets thrown to the hungry base, let’s just remember two things. Bongino and Patel. After the election Trump put both of these sycophants in his administration. Bongino as deputy director of the FBI and Patel as director of the FBI. Great! Good positions to have when that scrumptious list comes out. Ready, set, let’s go. Trump’s faithful faithfully wait. And wait. And wait. And then the big announcement comes. Then in July of 2025, the anticipation is over. It is announced. Wait for it….

There is no Epstein list.

Whoa! What? Impossible! This can’t be! For years Trump and company have been promising his delusional base that there was a list with leftists on it. He was going to get them all exposed and unleash a judicial fury on them. But no. There’s no list. Nothing to see here. Have a nice day.

Only his little MAGAts weren’t falling for that. They got mad at Attorney General Pam Bondi, at Bongino and Patel for promising them that they’d get to the bottom of the Epstein list. But most importantly, they got mad at Trump. Not only did they get mad at Trump for not releasing the files as he had promised but because he turned against them. He has called the files fake. Accused everyone from Barrack Obama to James Comey to have had a hand in putting them together. And growled at his supporters for not only not letting this go, but being stupid enough to fall for the “lunatic left’s” lies. Not a good look Donny.

But the more he wanted to forget about it, the more push back he got from his base. The longer the list of people he blamed, the more his supporters started to think that this man was full of it. He couldn’t distance himself from the Epstein list so instead he’d use different political subterfuge tactics like a new Obamagate conspiracy, the old 2016 Hilary emails, making some sugar changes in Coca Cola and threatening sports teams if they didn’t change their names back. But it didn’t go away. And it hasn’t gone away.

What Donny hasn’t realized is that he created this monster. He nurtured it. He fed it. He slept with it and he used it to win an election. Now he wants that monster to go quietly into the night. That’s the funny thing about conspiracy theory monsters that you’ve created Don. They never really go away.