Despite public dismissals, why Trump and his team were privately obsessed with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal

Even if youre sick of hearing about – and who among us hasnt felt that way at times – President Donald Trump and his team have been far more fixated on the relentless controversy than they have ever acknowledged.

That (and plenty of other juicy revelations) is based on three years of reporting for a forthcoming book. “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” is by New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and slated to be published in two weeks.

Whether youre a Trump supporter or detractor, the book is packed with facts that make clear that most or all of the major participants cooperated with them. The president also granted Haberman and Swan an hour-long interview in March.

One major takeaway: Even as Trump and officials repeatedly tried to dismiss the endless brawl, which stems from Trumps long-ago friendship with the late pedophile and sex offender, as old or irrelevant news, they repeatedly met in the Situation Room to try to manage the crisis.

In the initial meetings, argued strenuously that more detailed allegations about Trump – some suspect or totally unconfirmed – were going to surface eventually, and they should get out ahead of the story.

Some argued that Vance “appeared panicked,” according to the book, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who led the meetings, told others he was a conspiracy theorist. But Vance said Congress would force the release of the complete Epstein files no matter what they did.

In my view, the vice president was proven right.

At another meeting, talk turned to whether Trump should pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins enabler, who has defended Trump and is now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking of a minor. 

“Pardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge P.R. problem,” Communications Director Steven Cheung warned.

Trump posted that he had asked his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek release of grand jury testimony – which is almost never approved – “based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein.” 

At a session last summer, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who had demanded release of the files as a podcaster, started shouting at Bondi, according to the book.

“You f—– this thing up from the start,” he declared. “The way youve been talking about this — that dumb f—— charade with the Epstein files, the Theyre on my desk nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there.”

Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel told a White House official that Bondi needed to resign.   

At a meeting with Wiles meant to smooth things over, Bongino accused the White House of ignoring his warnings, in which he predicted what would happen, and burst out of the Situation Room.

Bongino resigned in December and returned to his podcasting business, where he felt hed given up millions of dollars. Trump fired Bondi in April.

Separately, Trump scolded conservative activist for allowing one of his events to turn into a “grievance fest” over the Epstein files. Kirk was tragically murdered in September.

One other allegation is drawing media attention and is almost certainly untrue, given the accusers lack of credibility. It comes second-hand from a woman who had already made claims about sexual abuse and then retracted them.

This woman, who was named by the Times, had claimed in an email that she knew a second woman who alleged that Trump had a special focus on nipples. One official called these discussions “surreal.”

Heres my analysis: 

Donald Trump did not want to do what his advisors wanted him to do. He resisted at every turn.

By last summer, the president started calling the Epstein matter a “SCAM” and a “hoax” , and attacked some pro-release members of his own