Ex-White House Aide Reveals Why Trump's 'Panicking Right Now'
A former White House insider said President Donald Trump’s lengthy rant on Truth Social urging supporters to forget all about late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein says a lot about his state of mind at the moment.
“He has to be panicking right now,” Sarah Matthews, who served as a press aide during the first Trump administration, said on MSNBC on Sunday.
Trump’s message on Truth Social was a sign of that panic as the president fired back at supporters who are angry after the Justice Department said last week that a long-rumored list of Epstein clients doesn’t exist.
Trump complained that Epstein is “a guy who never dies” and urged supporters to move on and focus on what he has accomplished instead.
“Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” Trump wrote.
But Matthews doesn’t think that post will help.
“The thing is, is that he campaigned on this,” she said. “He said that he was going to release the list and now his supporters are asking him to follow up and follow through.”
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and many within Trump’s orbit made the release of the list a central talking point. Earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the list was on her desk for review as part of a “directive by President Trump.”
But now, Bondi says there is no list ― and even many hardcore MAGA supporters don’t believe it.
Former Trump ally Elon Musk said last month the reason Trump won’t release the Epstein files is because Trump himself is in them.
With the story not going away, Matthews said Trump will likely turn to his favorite tactic: distraction.
“If I had to make a prediction, I think that he is going to try to shift the news cycle this week by either saying something very controversial or doing something controversial,” she said. “Because he does not want us to be talking about Jeffrey Epstein.”
See the full MSNBC conversation below:
