The New Yorker:

In a Presidency where everything is an outrage, what does it say that maga’s revolt over the Jeffrey Epstein files is the one crisis that really might hurt him?

By Susan B. Glasser

If there is one Washington art that Donald Trump has perfected, it is surely that of scandal management. After two impeachments, four indictments, and more head-exploding controversies than anyone could possibly count, his playbook of denial, deflection, and distraction is achingly familiar—though it should be noted that, given how much of what he says and does is scandalous, the label has generally lost all meaning when applied to his Presidency. In his second term, Trump now benefits from the presumption of his own survival from even the most politically debilitating of stories. And how could he not? A man who can win reëlection after inciting a mob of supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol is hardly going to be brought down by more quotidian offenses like monetizing the White House for his own purposes or openly defying court orders. All of which raises a definitional question: Is it still a scandal if there is no possibility that the accused will face any meaningful consequences?

And yet, six months into Trump 2.0, the President is enmeshed in a genuinely metastasizing scandal over his ties to the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It has all the classic Washington elements: a burgeoning coverup, a daily drumbeat of damaging stories, anonymous finger-pointing from senior Administration officials, bipartisan congressional demands for investigations, cratering poll numbers. Phrases such as “exploding bombshell” and “full-on dumpster fire” are being thrown about. The Attorney General and the F.B.I.’s deputy director are said to have shouted at each other. Trump himself, while privately disclaiming any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal wrongdoing, is reportedly resigned to weeks more of this—“they’re going to fuck me anyways,” he said in front of a recent Republican visitor to the Oval Office, per Politico.

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