Trump’s Epstein Shadow, Maxwell’s Little Note and the Silent Uprising of His Own Supporters - “To Jeff – You are the greatest!”

It is an oppressively hot Friday morning in Washington, the pavement shimmers yet Donald Trump hesitates on the South Lawn of the White House. Before boarding the helicopter bound for Scotland he speaks, as so often, longer than planned with the waiting reporters. He intends to speak about “the best six months ever,” about trade deals, the economic comeback and his re‑election strategy. Yet the questions persist relentlessly about a topic that has haunted him for years: Jeffrey Epstein. And above all: Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell, once a jet-set icon, confidante and accomplice, later convicted sex offender and key figure in one of the darkest chapters of the US elite, spent a day and a half this week in conversation with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The location: the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. According to her attorney David Oscar Markus, Maxwell answered around 100 questions about just as many individuals – without invoking her right to remain silent. “She answered everything. Honestly, as best she could.” It was a spectacular move by the Justice Department under Trump, whose proximity to Epstein – parties, flights, old letters – continues to threaten to become his undoing. “I was never on the island,” Trump assures once again when a journalist asks about the connections to Epstein. But instead of clarity comes evasion: “I don’t want to talk about it. Talk instead about how well the country is doing.”

Behind the scenes, a power struggle is raging. The conspiracy theory he once fueled himself about Epstein and an alleged “client list” now threatens to catch up with Trump. It was his own allies – including FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Chief Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi – who in 2023 hinted in podcasts, television appearances and interviews that the “swamp” needed to be exposed, the list was lying on a desk, and the pedophile network would soon be uncovered. Now, in July 2025, the Justice Department suddenly says: there is no list. Epstein took his own life in 2019. Further files? None. That caused outrage – especially in the Republican camp. Trump’s own base, radical influencers and conservative media reacted with anger. A public clash quickly followed: Bongino and Bondi got into a heated argument at the White House over lost credibility. To calm the situation, Trump had Maxwell’s interview transcripts unsealed – hoping to soothe tempers. But whether the courts will allow it remains unclear. Maxwell’s lawyer assured: “She spoke about everything, spared no one.” But what exactly she said is not known. And Trump? He seems to waver between distance and hope. A pardon? “I could do it, but I haven’t thought about it,” he said. Attorney Markus added: “We hope the President uses his power in a right and just way.”

That caused outrage – especially in the Republican camp. Trump’s own base, radical influencers and conservative media reacted with anger. A public clash quickly followed: Bongino and Bondi engaged in a heated exchange at the White House about lost credibility. As a means of calming things down, Trump had Maxwell’s interview transcripts unsealed – in the hope of soothing tempers. But whether the courts will allow that remains unclear. Maxwell’s lawyer assured: “She commented on everything, spared no one.” But what exactly she said is not known. And Trump? He seems to waver between distance and hope. A pardon? “I would be allowed to do it, but I haven’t thought about it,” he said. Attorney Markus said: “We hope that the President uses his power in a right and just way.”

In conservative circles, suspicion is growing that Trump’s team is deliberately playing a tactical game: on the one hand to use Maxwell’s statements, on the other to avoid opening up a new line of attack. Spokeswoman for the Republican Judiciary Committee: no comment. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, also expressed doubt: “Can she be trusted? This is a woman who was convicted of despicable, conspiratorial acts.” And yet Trump has chosen to place his Justice Department at the center of the investigation – with a paradox: the loyalists who were once supposed to exonerate him are now confronting him with a truth he can no longer control. Meanwhile, a plane flew over the Capitol in Tallahassee with a banner: “Trump and Bondi protect sex offenders.”

At the same time, Maxwell may soon appear before Congress. A hearing date has been set for the week of August 11. Whether she will appear is unclear. Her defense team is still considering invoking the Fifth Amendment – the right to remain silent in order not to incriminate oneself. But: “She never claimed privilege. Not with Blanche, not so far,” said her lawyer. The political danger for Trump lies on multiple levels: Democrats are demanding the release of all Epstein documents, investigative journalists are sensing new names, and former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey openly warned in a CNN interview of a “misuse of justice by the President.” The revelations about internal strategy debates, delayed denials and the exclusion of the Wall Street Journal from the press pool reinforce the impression of a government that in its second term hides more than it reveals.

On social media, Trump tries to change the narrative: “They’re playing the old Russia-Russia-Russia thing again – this time it’s called the Epstein scam.” At the same time, he released classified documents from the 2016 Russia affair – a distraction maneuver that not coincidentally brings the name Obama back on stage as a side character. It is Trump’s familiar tactic: retreat by advancing. Whoever attacks controls the discourse. But this time, control is slipping. Because too many in his own camp believe that Trump wants to evade responsibility. And too many media outlets have begun to dig deeper. Maxwell remains the personified risk: a prisoner who talks – perhaps because she hopes to still get something. Perhaps also because she has nothing left to lose. What remains is a president who talks without saying anything, governs without reassurance, and who, at the height of his power, cannot rid himself of an old ghost. It is a scandal that was once sparked by his own allies – and now threatens to consume him. A treadmill of assumptions, accusations, half-truths – and the desperate attempt to shake off the past with a helicopter flight across the Atlantic. But it is already onboard.

To be continued .....

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