Trump's plot to derail Hillary in 2015 set the stage for his Epstein nightmare: analyst

A fateful decision made by Donald Trump in 2015 set the stage for the nightmare he is currently undergoing 10 years later as he tries to fend off more and more questions about his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

What is not in doubt is that the then-New York City real estate developer was close friends with the sexual predator and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, but had he not believed he could pave his way to the White House in 2016 by saddling Hillary Clinton with a scandal involving his friend, he might not face the current unrelenting scandal that worsens by the day.

According to Salon’s Heather “Digby” Parton, Trump had eyed a White House run as his “Apprentice” reality show was slated for cancellation. He was advised by friend David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, of how to damage Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, by using Epstein as a cudgel because he also had a relationship with Bill Clinton.

That set in motion what Parton characterized as a “boomerang” that has come back to smack Trump during his second stint in the Oval Office and cloud his future in office.

The day after the Wall Street Journal reported more ties between Epstein and the embattled president, Parton recalled, “Trump was one of the first to bring up Epstein when he spoke at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference. Although his appearance came less than four months before he would announce his candidacy for president, he was already plotting how to go after Hillary Clinton, who was seen as the most likely Democratic nominee. Trump told Sean Hannity [of Fox News} that Bill Clinton was a ‘nice guy but has a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein. Lot of problems.’”

According to the Salon columnist, Epstein was more tabloid fodder at the time than political. With Pecker providing advice, Trump opened the door to turning the sketchy Epstein into a political talking point.

“This marked the first time anyone had used an association with Epstein for partisan purposes. Despite Trump’s own close friendship with the financier, which reportedly lasted well over a decade, he continued his attempt to link the Clintons to Epstein,” she wrote before observing that the Trump-supporting QAnon movement latched on to it with a death-grip that continues to this day.

She noted the president has also made matters worse by filling his inner circle with associates who saw their stock rise by embracing the multitude of conspiracies that have become Trump's stock in trade as he caters to an unquestioning MAGA base.

As Parton put it, “.... no one deserves it more than he does. He is the leading conspiracy theorist in the world today. No wonder QAnon loves him.”

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