Buckle up.

The same motive power that propelled Donald Trump’s electoral victories in 2016 and 2024 propelled his disastrous midterm repudiation—fear and loathing of government. There is no unconditional love in politics. Trump was elected to upend the ruling caste, which, among his supporters, is even more despised than the government. He didn’t do it, and has repeatedly demonstrated that he’s just another paid-up member. Many of his former supporters either protest-voted for the Democrats or stayed home.

The Epstein case continues to rankle because it so clearly involves prominent members of that caste. Here was an opportunity to not just disgrace some of them, but perhaps send them to prison. At the heart of it lies one crime that most Americans still find repellent—nonconsensual sex with underage victims. Trump repeatedly vowed to get to the bottom of it, then reversed himself and dismissed the whole matter. That not only enraged people, particularly his supporters, it also fueled suspicion that his involvement with Epstein’s depravity was far greater than he had admitted.

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