Sometimes Trump Stonewalls Because He's Just a Moron
Managing Epstein files expectations
It’s not possible for Trump to act more guilty than he’s acting about the Epstein files. His behavior makes the sweating guy from the Key & Peele “browser history” sketch look cool and composed. The logical deduction when someone acts like they have something to hide is that they do, indeed, have something to hide. If your neighbor introduced himself by saying “Hi, I’m Phil — don’t ever look in my garden shed,” and you noticed that the shed was protected by electrified fence and barbed wire, you’d assume that the shed was less of a rake-and-hose storage area and more of a dead hitchhiker repository.
So, of course people are assuming that if we ever see the full Epstein files, they’ll contain something damning for Trump. Some wonder if the unfathomably high bar for impeachable behavior for Trump — which has somehow been set above “tried to overturn an election” and “wipes his ass with Article 1 of the Constitution on a daily basis” — might be cleared. And maybe that will happen. If the over/under for horrible Trump behavior is set at “did stuff with a 17 year-old,” I’m taking the over.
But one thing makes me think that there might be less in the Epstein files than a rational person would assume. And that’s the fact that I can think of four instances in which Trump stonewalled, made himself look very guilty, and even put himself in legal jeopardy, but didn’t need to do that — the smarter play would have been to let things play out. He wasn’t innocent — I honestly think that Trump struggles to keep all his shady dealings straight — but he mis-played his hand so badly that it’s hard to call his actions “rational”. So, one answer to the question “Why would Trump act so guilty about the Epstein files?” is “Because he’s a huge moron and sometimes stonewalls when a smarter person would just stand down.”
Here’s what I’m talking about: