Published by The i paper (21st July, 2025)
After toying several times with running for president to boost his book and speaker fees, Donald Trump launched his political career by promoting a blatant falsehood: the idea Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was thus an illegal occupant of the White House. He pushed this racist controversy for five years despite clear evidence to the contrary, seeking to undermine the legitimacy of his nation’s first black president. He raised doubts on television, dripped poison into social media – and then congratulated himself in 2016 for solving the “mystery”, as if he had been performing a public service by pushing a crackpot conspiracy theory.
A decade later – after his own second election victory – many people have become almost inured to Trump’s damaging, divisive and egocentric brand of populism that debuted with that “birther” campaign. He is the dominant democratic figure of our age despite repeatedly spreading lies and nonsense. Yet suddenly he finds himself in trouble with his own base after stoking conspiracy theories about the shamed financier Jeffrey Epstein, reminding us that revolutions have a habit of devouring their own children.
Just as Maximilien Robespierre fell victim to the terror he unleashed in the French Revolution, so Donald Trump stands accused of becoming an agent of the Deep State in Washington and protector of the ruling elite that his most devout followers assumed he was going to overthrow.
At the centre of this furore is his one-time friend Epstein, a sexual predator linked to many well-known figures who died by suicide in a New York prison six years ago while awaiting trial on trafficking charges. Dark claims about Epstein’s supposed murder, his hold over clients and ties to Israeli intelligence swirl around the internet – and were inflamed by some of Trump’s allies, including several now holding influential posts in his administration.
Trump typically nodded towards these fears, raising concerns over Epstein’s death and pledging to release files on his clients. His Attorney General Pam Bondi said the list was “on my desk”, even performatively handing over folders marked “The Epstein List” to patsy social media figures. Then two weeks ago, the FBI and Justice Department declared the sex offender killed himself and there was no evidence of any list or blackmail. This sparked fresh fears about a sinister cover-up, with more than two-thirds of Americans believing information is being concealed. And Trump looked shifty – especially to his most fervent supporters – as he tried to move focus from the case while lashing out at a Democratic “hoax” pushed by “troublemakers and radical left lunatics”.
Cue delight among Democrats at seeing the President struggle – and meltdown among the Maga crowd. Their suspicions about a fetid swamp in Washington have been fuelled for years by Trump’s gang, with the Epstein conspiracy sitting at core of their paranoid view about the world. “What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?” asked right-wing radio host Dan Bongino before becoming deputy director of the FBI. Vice-President JD Vance said it was important to release the list. His billionaire patron Peter Thiel wrote in the Financial Times about how the sex offender’s death initiated the online liberation from a “Distributed Idea Suppression Complex” imposed by “media organisations, bureaucracies, universities and government-funded NGOs”. Far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec insisted this case symbolised “a shadowy system” with “control over our government, control over our institutions, control of our lives” which “really is a ruling power over us”.
There is bittersweet pleasure at seeing some of these repulsive figures that Trump cultivated suddenly view their idol as an emblem of a despised ruling cabal. Not least when there are few Americans more elitist than this self-serving tycoon.
It is also almost amusing to watch this particular president’s flailing efforts to dismiss claims about a mendacious deep state duping his people. He is a chancer, after all, who in his toxic rise to power boosted purveyors of fake news, promoted lies that corroded democracy, flirted with the far-right and pandered to absurd stories about society’s top echelons being controlled by child-abusers. I found it depressing to hear such beliefs parroted back by voters when reporting on the ground. Now the populist army he stirred into action and led fears betrayal over the mother of all conspiracy theories involving underage sex, sudden death, money, power and even Israel.
Trump’s problem is that there are valid questions over his friendship with Epstein – underlined again by the Wall Street Journal story (which Trump denies) about him sending a birthday greeting inside a drawing of a naked woman. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” he said infamously in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
This President is, remember, a sleaze ball found liable for sexual assault who was caught on tape boasting of using fame to abuse women. There remain other outstanding questions over the financier’s circle of powerful friends while conspiracy theories are hard to dispel. And yes, rich people do buy influence, officials abuse their power and governments try to hide misdeeds – as we have just seen in our own country with the disturbing Afghan data breach scandal.
This potent saga should serve as a warning to all those populists seeking to emulate Trump that if you play with fire, you are liable to get burned. First we had vaccine sceptic Robert Kennedy Jr confronted with a fatal measles outbreak after taking over as health secretary. Now Trump finds himself accused of participating in an elitist cover-up. Perhaps the Maga army will rally again around their chief. Or his genius for distracting stunts will divert attention from these troubles. Yet how grotesquely ironic that after Trump has so damaged American democracy and his nation’s standing in the world, it has taken a conspiracy theory about a rich pal to rattle his presidency and shake his supporters.