Trump‘s Epstein Cover-Up Is a Betrayal, Not Just a Lie

This post is by FrameLab contributor Jason Sattler.

Donald Trump’s endless cover-up of the Epstein files has damaged his standing with Republicans.

To be fair, Trump’s polling is abysmal in general.  His approval ratings have fallen into the danger zone— below 40%. Voters once trusted him on economic matters, but that’s also slipping as he pretends that “affordability” does not exist.

But there’s no issue where he’s receiving poorer marks from his own marks than the handling of his ties to his former friend, the world historical sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson were able to run the US House of Representatives like Putin’s Duma until the Epstein Files issue reached a boil this fall. Johnson went to extraordinary measures to prevent the release of the files. He failed, and the bill reached Trump’s desk with nearly every Republican’s support.

They had no choice. Polls show that only 53% of Republicans approved of how Trump is handling the Epstein scandal. That’s still a shockingly high number (up from 44% in a previous poll), but not compared to Republican approvals for his handling of the military (92% approval), Ukraine (74%), deportations (85%), trade (80%), and health care (72%).

Trump and Republicans had no choice but to act—and to at least pretend to embrace transparency on the Epstein files.

Last week, the Department of Justice began releasing heavily-redacted versions of the Epstein files. Once again, Mr. MAGA is refusing to come clean, and it’s hard to imagine how he could be acting more guilty.

Trump lies all the time. It’s a key part of his brand. His followers know he lies and, in fact, they like the fact that he lies. Whatever Trump does to keep power and defeat the Democrats is just fine with them.

But Trump’s Epstein evasions aren’t mere lies. They are also a betrayal of his supporters. As Dr. George Lakoff wrote in Don’t Think of An Elephant: Know Your Supporters and Frame The Debate, “mere lying is a minor matter when betrayal is the issue.”

Trump sold MAGA voters on the idea that he would reveal the truth of the Epstein case. For the MAGA base, Epstein symbolized the vast conspiratorial paranoia Trump has used to build a cult around himself. Trump seized on QAnon and adjacent conspiracy theories to assert himself as a “protector of children,” a noble role for any strict father that justifies all sorts of abuse as long as it’s not sexual.

He’s now abandoned that role in favor of an unending campaign to hide the truth.

In reality, no one was closer to Epstein than Trump, who still can’t say a bad word about him. And Trump is still doing favors for Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who got transferred to a nicer prison and may even get a presidential pardon.

The Epstein scandal is pushing Republicans to an existential breaking point. At some point, they may need to break with Epstein’s Best Friend Forever—the president—and assert their agency as elected officials, not just as servants of an almighty strict father. 

After all, in the Republican moral system, a “strict father” can’t be a betrayer of trust.

Trump is lying and hiding the evidence, as usual. But his growing status as a betrayer of trust is the most important point because it hits him where it hurts. The Epstein scandal exposes how Trump is betraying his own people. 

Trump can lie about anything. He cannot be a betrayer of trust. The Epstein files prove he is both—and one of those frames could destroy him.

Jason Sattler is LOLGOP on BlueSky and pretty much every other social media platform. His writing has appeared in USA TODAY, Wired.com, the New York Daily News and Alternet.