Donald Trump’s Epstein problem - podcast

Donald Trump has peddled many conspiracy theories in his time. From the baseless smear that Barack Obama was not a US citizen, to the claim that Trump did not lose the 2020 election, to ones even more far-fetched than that.

But, as Washington DC Bureau Chief David Smith tells Nosheen Iqbal, there is one conspiracy theory Trump may come to regret.

For when his estranged friend – and child sex offender – Jeffrey Epstein died in prison awaiting trial in 2019, Trump suggested that perhaps Epstein had not died by suicide at all … that something far more nefarious was going on in order to protect the rich and powerful whom Epstein had been partying with for decades.

In the years since, “Release the Epstein Files” has been a rallying call for the online right, not least among Trump’s Maga’s base. In particular, they have called for the publication of Epstein’s “client list” – a roll-call of the elite supposedly implicated in Epstein’s crimes.

Yet since coming to office, the president seems to have changed his tune, with his administration insisting in the last few weeks that no such list exists, and that there was nothing suspicious about Epstein’s death.

It has seemingly enraged some of the president’s own supporters, who have accused Trump of being part of a deep-state cover up – and questioned just how involved Trump was with Epstein after all.