PoliticusUSA is solely supported by readers like you. Please consider supporting us by becoming a subscriber.
The Wall Street Journal is a conservative mainstream publication that will never be mistaken as liberal, which is why the fact that the WSJ was preparing to publish a big story on Trump’s close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein sent the president into a panic.
The Status newsletter reported:
The article, said to be in the works for days, had still not appeared as of Thursday afternoon—raising eyebrows and fueling speculation across Washington and New York.
According to people familiar with the matter, The Journal is facing pressure from the White House over the story. In fact, Trump is said to have personally called Emma Tucker, The Journal’s editor-in-chief, to voice his objections. The specifics of the call remain unclear, but it’s hard to imagine Trump voiced anything but outrage. It’s unclear whether Trump reached out to Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns The Journal.
While the specifics of what The Journal intends to report remain under wraps, the story is said to contain new material shedding light on the Trump-Epstein relationship.
If it were CNN, The Washington Post, or The New York Times that had this story, the White House might not be so frantic to kill it. The administration would attack the story as fake news and count on the fact that those media outlets had been poisoned long ago, so the odds of Trump’s supporters believing anything from those sources are minimal.
The Wall Street Journal is a different story. An exclusive that contains bombshells from the Journal is likely to be believed across the political spectrum.
If there is nothing to the story, Trump could have squashed it during his first term by releasing everything. The Epstein conspiracy theories were born because the Trump administration was shady after Epstein died in prison.
Once Trump lost the 2020 election, he leaned into the Epstein conspiracies and tried to use them for political gain.
The crisis that this administration is dealing with currently is Trump’s creation. Donald Trump responded to his supporters’ expectation that he would keep his campaign promise to release everything on Epstein by trying to shut them down.
The story isn’t going anywhere, and with outlets like The Wall Street Journal digging around, the odds are high that it could get much worse.
It isn’t the 34 fraud felony convictions or the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit that has done the most damage to Trump. Two impeachments and allegations of collaborations with a hostile foreign power bounced off of Donald Trump like they were nothing.
What is sticking to Donald John Trump is Jeffrey Epstein.
When Trump’s second term began, no one would have said that by the summer of 2025, Trump’s biggest problem would be Jeffrey Epstein.
Even if Trump is able to kill the WSJ story, there will be others.
If the most comfortable lap dogs in the corporate press are challenging the Trump administration on this, the dam is about to break, and even bigger problems could be coming.
What do you think about Trump trying to kill the WSJ story? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
