Donald Trump is finding out the hard way that anything he says about teen sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein and the notorious files the DOJ is sitting on, which are at the center of a brutal fight in Congress, is not helping his case with his base so he is being forced to change his normal strategy as he tries to rally them to his defense.
According to a report from MS NOW’s Zeeshan Aleem, the president is now visibly “rattled” that he can't make the controversy go away, so in recent days he has been keeping his distance from reporters because his off-the-cuff answers have been blowing up in his face.
As Aleem wrote, “in the past few days, Trump has been uncharacteristically reticent around journalists,” adding that The Atlantic’s Jonathan Lemire agreed, writing, “White House held a signing ceremony for the president to officially end the longest federal-government shutdown in history, the reporters present were quickly whisked out of the Oval Office.”
Pointing out that Trump surprisingly held no public events on Friday where shouting reporters would be present, Aleem suggested the president doesn't want to be put on the spot with unanticipated questions, so he is taking his fight to Truth Social where he has more control.
“Trump may well resume taking reporters’ questions with his usual bravado in the coming days, but it’s telling that he appears hesitant to do his usual extemporaneous riffing,” the MS NOW reporter observed before adding, “The reason is simple: Questions surrounding Trump’s relationship with Epstein and Epstein’s sexual offenses is one of the few issues over which segments of Trump’s base openly question him.”
As MS NOW contributor Phillip Bump pointed out, the president has good reason to want to avoid enraging his base further.
Bump wrote, "In polling conducted in October by Ipsos for Reuters, 9 in 10 Republicans expressed approval of Trump’s presidency. But only 4 in 10 indicated that they approved of how he was handling the Epstein files. Quinnipiac University polling conducted this summer found a similar split: 84% of Republicans approved of Trump’s presidency, but only 44% approved of how he was handling Epstein.”
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