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For most of his political career, Trump’s been the Harry Houdini of American politics. Like Houdini, Trump locked himself in boxes it was impossible to get out of – yet he always escaped.

To the delight of his MAGA base, Trump escaped a Department of Justice investigation into efforts by Russia to help his 2016 campaign. He escaped 34 counts of falsifying federal records to hide his affair with Stormy Daniels. He escaped being found liable for sexual abuse by a jury in the E. Jean Carroll case. He escaped trying to overturn results of the 2020 primary election in Georgia. And he escaped being impeached – not once, but twice.

But now Trump is locked in a box he can’t get out of. It’s a box of his own making, called Jeffrey Epstein.

For the last six years, ever since Epstein was convicted of sex trafficking underage girls, Trump and his loyal followers, including Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and J.D. Vance, convinced his MAGA base that Epstein was the subject of a massive government coverup by the “deep state.” They insisted he was murdered in his cell, and not a suicide victim. They accused the Justice Department of covering up his “client list” to protect well-known “elites” who took part in his depravity. And they promised that, if elected, Trump would release the Epstein files and expose the whole deal.

Once sworn in, Attorney General Pam Bondi further raised expectations by inviting influencers to the White House and giving each of them a big box labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” which turned out to contain nothing new. She then went on Fox News and promised the full Epstein files were “sitting on her desk” for her review.

Oops! One week later, Bondi issued a statement refuting everything she and Trump had ever said about Epstein: He was not murdered, he committed suicide, and there was no client list.

But the MAGA base isn’t buying it. Why? Because Trump did such a good job selling the Epstein conspiracy that now he can’t lie his way out of it.

You must admit, it’s been amusing, watching Trump try all of his old tricks to get out of the Epstein box. He begged his supporters to please, please, please stop talking about Epstein. He blamed it all on Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Trying to change the subject, he released the files about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., without the King family’s approval. He ordered the attorney general to ask the court to release “pertinent” parts of the Epstein grand jury testimony (a federal judge refused). He sued the Wall Street Journal.

Then, in sheer desperation, Trump accused former President Obama of committing “treason” by launching a Department of Justice investigation led by Robert Mueller into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. Which, of course, is the most outrageous charge of all. Mueller, in fact, was appointed by Trump’s own Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in May 2017, five months after Obama left the White House.

And, by the way – maybe Trump forgot? – without charging Trump with any crime, Mueller concluded that Russia did, in fact, attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf and that the Trump campaign knew all about it, which was confirmed by all 17 American intelligence agencies. It was the same conclusion reached unanimously after a three-year investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose Acting Chair at the time, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), now Trump’s secretary of state, cited “irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.”

Trump has thrown every plate of spaghetti he can think of against the wall, but so far none of it’s sticking. Not only will the Epstein scandal not go away, every day it gets worse.

This week alone, CNN uncovered never-before-published photos of Trump and Epstein, two New York playboy friends, hanging out together. And the Wall Street Journal dropped the bombshell that Trump was informed by Bondi in May that his name does, in fact, often show up in the Epstein files. What do you know? It looks like Elon Musk was right, after all!

With the House now scheduled to vote on releasing the Epstein files after their August recess, and the House Oversight Committee summoning testimony from Epstein’s partner-in-crime Ghislaine Maxwell, the scandal’s not going away anytime soon.

Who knows? In the end, it may be a convicted sexual predator who brings down a convicted serial sexual abuser. If so, how appropriate.

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(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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