Trump ‘Increasingly Frustrated’ With How Epstein Story Has ‘Overshadowed His Agenda’: Report
President Donald Trump, according to a new report, is privately losing patience with the way the Jeffrey Epstein story has continued to dominate the headlines.
According to a Washington Post story published late Sunday, the president is seeing that the current strategy of hunkering down and essentially hoping the base will eventually move on is not working.
From the Post’s report — written by Emily Davies, Perry Stein, Jeremy Roebuck and Kadia Goba:
President Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with how his administration’s handling of the furor around the Jeffrey Epstein files has dominated the news and overshadowed his agenda, said two people familiar with his thinking.
His exasperation follows weeks of missteps and no clear strategy among top officials who underestimated the outrage, especially from the president’s base, and hoped the country would forget about the unreleased Epstein files and move on, according to nearly a dozen people close to the situation, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations.”
Trump’s frustration was visible in public on Sunday — as he roiled over an Epstein question from a reporter during a press engagement with the president of the EU.
“Mr. President,” the reporter said to Trump, “was part of the rush to get this deal done to know the Jeffrey Epstein story out of–”
“Oh, you gotta be kidding with that,” the president replied — interjecting. “No, had nothing to do with it. Only you would think that. That had nothing to do with it.”
The Post report went on to paint a picture of internal turmoil at the DOJ and FBI — with one source speculating about how the highest-ranking officials may be impacted.
“This is a pretty substantial distraction,” said an unnamed person identified by the Post as someone who is close to the situation. “While many are trying to keep the unity, in many ways, the DOJ and the FBI are breaking at the seams. Many are wondering how sustainable this is going to be for all the parties involved — be it the FBI director or attorney general.”
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