President Donald Trump has survived impeachments, indictments, and even a criminal conviction. But Jeffrey Epstein may be the scandal that defines him, according to Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf.
“This is his signature scandal,” Rothkopf told Joanna Coles on The Daily Beast Podcast.
For the veteran foreign policy analyst, the Epstein case isn’t just another lurid Trump-era controversy. It’s “the story of our time.”
It’s a saga that connects global power, inequality, foreign intelligence intrigue, and elite impunity.
The steady drip of Epstein-related documents has already triggered fallout for figures including Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and former U.K. minister Peter Mandelson, who all continued associating with the disgraced financier after his 2008 conviction for sex crimes involving minors.
“It is remarkable how this thing has just spread its tentacles,” Coles said.
And for anyone assuming the revelations are tapering off, Rothkopf offered a warning.
“If you think the Epstein files story is done,” he said, “we’re just at the beginning.”
What the public is seeing now, he argued, is only the “bad judgment phase.”
In other words, powerful people are being embarrassed for associating with the convicted sex offender. The harder questions have barely begun.
“There is something more serious under here… the crime under it," Rothkopf said.
He also pointed to the intelligence dimension as one of the most disturbing aspects of the scandal.
“Intelligence services look for access to influential people… ideally in situations where there are compromising factors,” he said.
Epstein’s world, he added, looked like “the world’s largest honey trap.”
“I know a lot of people in the intelligence community,” Rothkopf continued.
“I do not know a single person who did not think or does not think... that Epstein would not be a target.”
If Epstein was a target, the implications are profound. It raises questions not just about who socialized with him, but who may have benefited from his access, and whether powerful people had reasons to keep the full story from surfacing.
Rothkopf argued that the most serious issue now is what he describes as an effort to prevent the truth from emerging.
“I think that cover-up that Trump, Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche are involved in right now is a huge crime,” he said.
“This is part of the Department of Obstruction of Justice sitting there, working, covering all this stuff up.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing related to Epstein and has not been charged in connection with the trafficking case. Still, Rothkopf cast the scandal as the clearest distillation of Trump’s political persona.
“This is his sense of impunity,” he said, linking the saga to Trump’s long history around beauty pageants and allegations of sexual misconduct. But in his telling, Epstein is not just a Trump problem.
“It’s not just the signature crisis of Trump, it’s the signature crisis of our time.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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