Epstein Secrets

curious Trump subtext. Trump’s brutish father was an often vocal anti-Semite. In the split in New York real estate between the Jews and non-Jews, the Trumps were clearly on the lesser side. The Jews were white shoe, and Donald Trump, even more than his father, was perceived as a vulgarian—after all, he pu

resident. Pence started nearly every speech saying, “I bring greetings from our forty-fifth HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019977 president of the United States, Donald J. Trump ...”—a salutation directed more to the president than to the audience. Pence cast himself as blandly uninteresting, sometimes barely seeming to exis

had a meaningful discussion in his life about health insurance. “No one in the country, or on earth, has given less thought to health insurance than Donald,” said Roger Ailes. Pressed in a campaign interview about the importance of Obamacare repeal and reform, Trump was, to say the least, quite unsure of

en a new sort of centrism, as inimical to Bannonism as it was possible to conceive, could emerge. Bannon’s pronouncements about a fifty-year rule for Trumpism might then be supplanted by the rule of Jared, Ivanka, and Goldman Sachs. By the end of March, this was the side that was winning. Bannon’s efforts

House had now all but been united under the president’s family. His son-in-law and daughter hoped—they were even confident—that they could speak to DJT’s better self, or at least balance Republican needs with progressive rationality, compassion, and good works. Further, they could support this modera

together, and what this election shows, and what President Trump showed, and let’s not kid ourselves, I can talk a

tacts with Trump associates. The story went on: Mr. Trump has denied that his campaign had any contact with

OVERSIGHT_019977 president of the United States, Donald J. Trump ...”—a salutation directed more to the pres

l people without clearly monetizable reputations before their association with Trump—were, for better or worse, hitched to him. (Even among dedicated Trumpers there was always a certain amount of holding their breath and constant reexamination of their options.) But those within the larger circle of White H

lable Republican rectitude, Ryan was the official last, best hope of the Republican Party. (Bannon, typically, had turned this trope into an official Trumpist talking point: “Ryan was created in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation.”’) If the Republican Party had been moved further right by the Tea Party

anks of the River Jordan in 2010, they both attended the baptism of Grace and Chloe Murdoch, the young daughters of Rupert Murdoch and his then wife, Wendi. Jared and Ivanka had also lived in the same Trump building on Park Avenue where the Murdochs lived (for the Murdochs it was a temporary rental apart

d everybody’s disbelieving looks, the president seemed HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019905 intent on surrounding himself in the White House with his family. The Trumps, all of them —except for his wife, who, mystifyingly, was staying in New York—were moving in, all of them set to assume responsibilities similar to t

me when it had borders. When America was great. Trump had become the platform for that message. By that January evening, Bannon had been immersed in Donald Trump’s world for almost five months. And though he had accumulated a sizable catalogue of Trump’s peculiarities, and cause enough for possible alarm about t

ked Trump’s impact and his shamelessness. “He just keeps going,” Ailes had marveled to a friend after the first debate with Hillary Clinton. “You hit Donald along the head, and he keeps going. He doesn’t even know he’s been hit.” But Ailes was convinced that Trump had no political beliefs or backbone. Th

rtly after eight o’clock that evening, when the unexpected trend—Trump might actually win—seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he called him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania, to whom Donald Trump had made his solemn guarantee, was in tears—and not of joy. There

ncies and personnel responsible for enforcing it, President Trump—with Bannon’s low, intense voice behind him, offe

streamed on a laptop in the transition offices. “Mr. Trump said he’s never once listened to a whole Obama sp

lism, of people knowing too much who were defeated by all the complexities and conflicting interests before they began. Trump, knowing little, might, Trumpers tried to believe, give a kooky new hope to the system. Jared Kushner in quite a short period of time—trather less than a year—had crossed over from

, namely that these kinds of events—Trump sitting down with serious-minded people and looking for solutions to the nation’s problems—were the soul of Trump’s White House and the media was giving them scant coverage. Hosting business advisory councils was a Kushner strategy. It was an enlightened business

g as much policy as possible to Capitol Hill. In the early weeks of the administration, Priebus arranged for House Speaker Paul Ryan, however much a Trumpist béte noire for much of the campaign, to come into the White House with a group of ranking committee chairmen. In the meeting, the president blithely

’ll want to stay to see Rupert. (Or, one of the guests interpreted, you’ll want to stay to see Trump with Rupert.) Murdoch, who, with his then wife, Wendi, had often socialized with Jared and Ivanka, in the past made little effort to hide his lack of interest in Trump. Murdoch’s fondness for Kushner cre

virtue. If every new event canceled out every other event, like some wacky news-cycle pyramid scheme, then you always survived another day. OOK Ok Donald Trump’s sons, Don Jr., thirty-nine, and Eric, thirty-three, existed in an enforced infantile relationship to their father, a role that embarrassed them, but

nothing. And yet, OMG!!! There almost was no other story in America—and in much of the world. That was the radical and transformational nature of the Trump presidency: it held everybody’s attention. Inside the White House, the daily brouhaha and world’s fascination was no cause for joy. It was, in the W

nning his company. Of course, quite a good amount of their professional time was spent on the whims, projects, promotions, and general way of life of DJT. One benefit of their father’s run for president was that it kept him away from the office. Still, the campaign’s administration was largely their r

the other hand, he wanted Jarvanka to go. And that became an effective ultimatum. 7 OK Ok At lunch on August 8, in the Clubhouse at Bedminster—amid Trumpish chandeliers, golf trophies, and tournament plaques—the president was flanked by Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, and his wife,

rlie, 309 Rosen, Hillary, 78 Rosenstein, Rod, 212, 214, 216-21, 279 Ross, Wilbur, 78, 133, 229-30 Roth, Steven, 27, 141 Rove, Karl, 57, 238 Rumsfeld, Donald, 27 Russia, 24, 37-39, 92, 151-56, 160, 190-91, 236-46, 273, 303, 307-8 Bannon on, 6—7, 238-40, 278-83 Comey and, 168-70, 210-20, 242, 244-45 Don Jr.

is would be the lasting conundrum of dealing with President Trump: the “why” of his often baffling behavior. “The

grim. “Does he ever smile?” asked Trump, who had already begun to think that he had somehow been tricked into the hire. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020101 Some Trumpers, particularly those with over-the-transom access to the president, believed that he had been tricked into some form of very-much-not-Trump submission

about whether the president’s situation was bad, but whether it was Twenty-Fifth-Amendment bad. OOK Ok To Bannon, if not to Trump, the linchpin of Trumpism was China. The story of the next generation, he believed, had been written, and it was about war with China. Commercial war, trade war, cultural war,

oe, 156 Murdoch, Grace, 156 Murdoch, Rupert, 2, 8, 19-20, 32, 36, 60-61, 73-74, 80-81, 93, 121, 147, 156-57, 178-79, 195-98, 223, 289, 298 Murdoch, Wendi, 19, 80, 156 Murphy, Mike, 56 Musk, Elon, 35, 78, 88, 238 National Economic Council, 89, 143-44 National Environment Policy Act (1970), 182 Nati

itz Sasha Baron Cohen, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper and Jane Fonda after her play, 33 Variations. | introduce Melania and Donald Trump to David O. Russell as The Trumpster gushes about The Fighter. David tells Donald he used to be a waiter/bar tender at many of Trump’s parties. Donal

lania and Donald Trump to David O. Russell as The Trumpster gushes about The Fighter. David tells Donald he used to be a waiter/bar tender at many of Trump’s parties. Donald smiles as if looking at yet another apprentice. He then offers me a ride home on his plane; he’s leaving in 10 minutes. Too bad Jam

eldt, Betsey Bloomingdale, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera, Wren Scott and Sir Mick Jagger, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber, Wendi Stark, George Hamilton, Judd Apatow, Jackie and Joan Collins, Donna Karan and Steve Martin. The best and the brightest talent in town arrive at 9 p.m