Contesting against Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump won the favour of his supporters and some new additions to the far-right side in late November over a number of his policies, including immigration. According to one such promise he banked on ahead of the November polls, his team vowed to release the ‘Epstein Files,’ which have long been concealed even though the disgraced financier died in his prison cell in 2019.

Cut to 2025, Trump won the election and entered his second office term. Holding up the first part of his promise, the US government enthusiastically pushed out the ‘First Phase’ of the so-called files related to Jeffrey Epstein in February. However, nothing consequential came to light at the time.

US Justice Department working as an extension of Trump’s White House instead of conducting independent investigations?

Half-way into the year, the Department of Justice and FBI redirected the course of the investigation, fervently determining the late billionaire killed himself, shunning any possibility of a third-party intervention. On top of that, their controversial joint review of the pedophile’s case declared that there never was an Epstein ‘client list,’ drowning out long-held hopes of the scandal being unravelled for once and for all.

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The DOJ and FBI’s dismissal of the purported ‘client list’ came around the time Trump’s once-‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk boldly announced via his social media that the US president actually earned a mention or two in the ‘Epstein Files.’ While attempts were made to resolve the feud, the official joint memo shocker sparked furor even among firm Trump supporters and Republicans.

In the meantime, the MAGA leader has tried his all to step above what he calls a “hoax,” while his side reiterates that the Epstein scandal is nothing but a conspiracy concocted by the Left to drown out Trump’s relevance.

Trump-Epstein links resurface

Amid the mounting pressure on the Trump administration to speak the truth about the Epstein controversy and fears that the US president may actually be in the infamous files, liberal media has continued clamping down on the POTUS’ claims. Archival footage and photos from the ’90s, as released by CNN this week, have since rained down on his parade as well, insisting that the convicted sex offender even attended Trump’s 1993 wedding to his second wife at the Plaza Hotel.

Additionally, the pair was also spotted chatting it up, all-smiles, at a 1997 Victoria’s Secret ‘Angels’ party. At the time, Leslie H Wexner ran the lingerie company, giving Epstein a considerably shocking amount of control over his finances and more.

On the other side of the conversation, the 79-year-old has maintained that regardless of his ages-old connection with Epstein, as documented in appearances as old as the ’80s, Trump found him a “creep” given his eventual conviction for sex crimes. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also asserted that the American leader “kicked” the financier from his Mar-a-Lago resort for the same reason.

They are said to have had a “falling-out” around 2004, but not before he told New York magazine in 2002 how his supposed former pal is a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.”

Trump’s book messages to Epstein

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal kicked off another wave of allegations linking Trump to Epstein earlier this month, saying that he was one of the many high-profile acquaintances to leave a message in the infamous 2003 birthday book compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump went on to sue the media outlet and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, seeking at least $10 billion in damages.

Despite his legal action, The New York Times followed suit and aggressively doubled down on the issue pushing out a new exposé this week, which insisted that in addition to the bawdy birthday message that hinted at a “secret” they shared, Trump left another message in a different book Epstein owned as well. 

Dated October ‘97 and signed “Donald,” the book titled “Trump: The Art of the Comeback,” held the inscription from the POTUS that read: “To Jeff – You are the greatest!”

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Epstein victims against Trump

Although Trump has been repeatedly linked to the late convicted pedophile, he hasn’t been formally charged with any wrongdoing related to Epstein. And yet, one of the financier’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, said that before she was recruited as a masseuse for the ever-controversial man who eventually groomed and abused her, she was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago. As reported by NYT, another individual claimed that as Trump eyed her in Epstein’s office, the latter told him at the time that “she’s not for you.”

Someone else drew up yet another connection, recounting that Trump groped her when Epstein brought her to Trump Tower in Manhattan. 

Palm Beach connection

Ahead of the 2004 “falling-out,” Trump and Epstein even got embroiled in a legal tussle over real estate. Both longtime pals had their lawyers bid on the Maison de l’Amitie. In the end, Trump ended on top, and purchased it for $41.35 million. At one point, the MAGA boss also claimed that his bromance break with Epstein was spurred by his inappropriate actions towards a daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member. This seems to be the time when he apparently felt the need to “kick” Epstein out, as foregrounded in recent counters by his side. 

During his first presidential term, Trump drastically switched tones from once calling Epstein a “terrific guy,” to admitting he “wasn’t a fan,” and only knew him “like everybody in Palm Beach knew him” especially since they crossed paths around 1990 as neighbours in the town’s upscale neighbourhood. 

Trump-Epstein devolving into Watergate 2.0?

Despite his repeated attempts to distance himself from the Epstein “hoax,” legal experts can’t help but sense a deja vu empowered by the memories of Nixon’s Watergate fall. And so, in one anoth r WSJ report, they insinuated that presidents end up making claims about things that the Justice Department may fail to offer up evidence for in court. “They are tied together … and they will rise and fall together,” said Philip Lacovera, who was the deputy solicitor general during the Nixon administration and also served on the Watergate prosecutor team. 

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In new efforts to quell the general dissatisfaction with him, Trump eventually gave in and asked a judge to unseal grand jury testimony related to the Epstein case earlier this week. Additionally, a senior DOJ exec concluded two-day meetings with longtime Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to narrow down others who may have “committed crimes against victims.”

One can’t help but recount the infamous Watergate scandal, which resulted in then-President Richard Nixon resigning from his post. The US political scandal unfolded over a span of two years as a group linked to the politician’s re-election campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. But it was no ordinary burglary, as they planted listening devices at the Watergate complex address.

What followed was a series of cover-up attempts by officials and Nixon himself, ultimately deepening the need for the Justice Department’s detachment from political meddling. As that seems to be something amiss in 2025 given the constant White House interferences, the DOJ now merely appears to be an extension of Trump’s power play. Is this not Watergate 2.0 in-the-making, inspiring the severe need for the two entities to be objectively disjointed?