Donald Trump is learning the hard way how fostering conspiracies can come back to bite you — and now his political future is uncertain.
That is the opinion of conservative polling guru Karl Rove, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the Jeffrey Epstein files imbroglio that is swamping his administration will likely have no happy ending in store for the president.
Written before the Journal dropped the bombshell that the president was told in May his name appears in the files on the accused pedophile, Rove wrote that the Trump rode to victory in 2024 in large part by promising to expose the clients of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Now Trump is scrambling as a substantial number within the MAGA mob aren't taking it well and, in their anger and disappointment, may decide to give up on politics altogether.
Writing, "Team Trump is now in damage control mode. They’ve also fought among themselves. That will leave scars," Rove suggested, "One possibility is the Trump administration unleashes not facts, but fresh unsupported claims to 'prove' what they’ve said is true. Another possibility is that Team Trump makes no definitive statements. Neither would be enough and the outcome might cause conspiracy backers to view Mr. Trump and his administration as tools of the Deep State, in on it from the beginning."
Pointing out that an adherence to reality is not one of Trump's strong points, he noted, "What should trouble him is that recent events may well reduce the number of his supporters who vote in the midterms and beyond."
"Told their passionately held beliefs are wrong or forced to watch the White House fail to jail their common enemies, many might become discouraged, tune out and drop out of politics," he added before predicting, "That could lead to a Democratic win in the 2026 midterms and beyond. If that happens, Mr. Trump’s life will get a whole lot more complicated."
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