The Democratic Party establishment has thrown the book at Trump on everything from Russiagate, to the attempted coup on January 6 that he encouraged, to paying off a sex worker—and none of it really damaged him on Election Day. A chicken or two have finally come home to roost, with the Epstein files controversy causing the biggest rift to date between Trump and his MAGA base.
The current administration is packed with conspiracy theorists who, alongside Trump himself, have spent years demanding the release of the files to unmask the elite’s role in Epstein’s sex trafficking of women and girls as young as 14. They seemed to have forgotten that Trump, the head of their operation, has been a key figure in this same elite ever since he was gifted his family’s real estate empire decades ago.
Trump has successfully channelled anger at the political establishment in a right-wing direction, but there are limits, particularly when he’s exposed as part of that establishment. The cracks in his base are significant: a quarter of Trump voters who disapprove of his Epstein handling now regret voting for him in 2024.
The rage against Trump, and all those now covering up for him, is absolutely justified. Regardless of whether Epstein committed suicide or which specific elites were on his private plane, the key issue is that the super rich and their loyal representatives in both corporate parties can engage in abuse with impunity most of the time. Massive inequality is a big part of the basis for the rampant abuse of women and girls within elite circles that the #MeToo movement shone a spotlight on.
But these injustices can be fought. Epstein’s arrest came two years after the rise of the #MeToo movement which demanded that powerful abusers be taken down and held accountable. The movement haunted those billionaires who thought that they could do whatever they wanted without pushback.
Epstein’s revolting network of abuse was truly bipartisan, and this highlights the need for a new political party independent of the billionaire class and its two parties. Today, with the rise of nationalism, racism, LGBTQ-phobia, and levels of misogyny not seen for decades, there’s an urgent need to get organized and fight for real liberation. A new party of and for working-class people could tie the issue of sexual abuse to the daily struggles of working people in our workplaces, schools, and communities and fight against the capitalist system that promotes and relies on all types of oppression to remain in power.
We absolutely need to demand the release of these files and the prosecution of all those involved in the case or covering it up. More importantly, we need to build a movement to fight for a world where monsters like these don’t exist and no one has the power to do what Jeffrey Epstein did.