Trump’s team turned the Situation Room into an Epstein damage-control “war room.” And they met without Trump. That’s the new bombshell from the New York Times, and Trump is already melting down over it.
This morning’s report, drawn from the forthcoming book “Regime Change” by NYT reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, paints a picture of a White House in full panic over one name it cannot escape.
Start with the war room itself.
After the DOJ’s memo claiming there was no Epstein “client list” backfired spectacularly with Trump’s own base, senior officials began gathering repeatedly in the Situation Room, the most secure room in American government, to manage the fallout.
JD Vance presided over heated debates. Shouting matches. Clashing strategies. And tellingly, they did it without the president in the room.
Then there’s the Pam Bondi fiasco.
According to the report, Bondi blindsided her own White House by handing Epstein binders to right-wing influencers, with one staffer reportedly boasting “Watch this.
This is cool. This is going to be epic.”
The influencers posed for selfies with the binders outside the White House, creating exactly the Epstein frenzy the administration was desperately trying to smother. All while the British Prime Minister was visiting that same day.
The book’s thesis is simple: no matter what Trump did, he could not make the public forget about Jeffrey Epstein.
And here’s the beautiful part. Trump proved that thesis this morning, in real time.
Joe Scarborough mentioned the report on Morning Joe. Within the hour, Trump was raging on Truth Social, calling him “one of the most inaccurate detailers of truthful facts on television” and a “laughing stock.”
The hosts pointed out the obvious on air: the President of the United States just confirmed that the mere mention of Epstein sends the White House into a tailspin.
Trump has always denied any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
Then ask the only question that matters: why does this White House respond to that name like a five-alarm fire? Innocent men don’t need a war room.