Folks, we have a very short Jackal for you, half because I had some additional thoughts on Jeffrey Epstein and half because I wanted to share pictures of Telluride.
Every Colorado mountain town has its own charm, but I think Telluride is my favorite so far. Just look at this place:
If you don’t live in Colorado, what are you even doing with yourself?
Wasn’t this post about Epstein?
Honestly, it is less about Epstein and more about MAGA itself. As you may have noticed, Epstein has faded from the news somewhat, which can be a good thing. While the Epstein stuff is gross, infuriating (more on this later), and still relevant, there are - in fact - more important things going on.
But I don’t think it has faded due to a lack of reporting. For instance, CNN just dropped a great, in-depth look at Trump’s relationship with Epstein over almost three decades and it is worth a read. But it hasn’t really made huge waves (likely due to it being behind CNN’s paywall), which is kind of unsurprising to me.
It is unsurprising because it is clear that MAGA has moved on from Trump’s refusal to release the Epstein files. I had a conversation with a Trump supporter recently, and while it was about a host of other things, Epstein obviously came up. As I have said since the beginning of the Epstein fiasco, MAGA would eventually line back up behind Trump, no matter what evidence comes out:
Will MAGA abandon Trump over this? [That is the question] on everyone’s mind, and I think the very obvious answer is no. Eventually, they will move on or they will buy one of Trump’s explanations. A lot of the Epstein stuff is palpable in MAGA because of the big influence of QAnon, but even that has faded as its promises have collapsed. Eventually, they will turn back to Trump.
I said this at the time because I have repeatedly seen MAGA reason away Trump’s connection to Epstein. When all the information about Epstein and Trump was released during Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, MAGA - which had been talking about the trial non-stop - magically shut up about it. MAGA Twitter accounts that were covering the trial every day literally just stopped talking about it.
In a recent conversation with a Trump supporter, I mentioned all the relevant news about Trump and Epstein: That Virginia Giuffre (one of Epstein’s victims) said that she was working at Mar-A-Lago when Epstein recruited her; that Trump flew on Epstein’s plane; and that Epstein took young girls to meet Tump at Mar-A-Lago.
Here is how the Trump supporter responded (not edited for easier reading, sorry):
You question that “Trump had a 15-year-old masseuse,” is just smear by implication. No, Guiffre was employed by the spa at Mar-a-Lago, NOT FOR TRUMP PERSONALLY, and said spa hired many people, including teenagers, a common practice in resort towns. You do know that in most states teenagers as young as 14 can be legally employed? Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean Trump knew or endorsed anything Epstein did. Then your other statement: “He (Trump) straight up came out and said he kicked Epstein out of Mar -a-Lago because he stole women from him.” This is not a direct quote. Let’s get the direct quote and in its full context. July 28, 2025: “ “For years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He did it again. And I threw him out of the place, persona non grata. I threw him out, and that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth…” Then July 29,2025: When asked if the WORKERS EPSTEIN HIRED AWAY were young women, Trump responded, “the answer is yes, they were.” In referring to Epstein and employees, Trump stated, “People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone.” You twisted one, two or all of those comments into “he (Epstein) stole women from Trump,” which is a gross paraphrase with no basis in the actual words. That’s an intentionally twisted paraphrase that’s been exaggerated and spread by leftist lunatics like you to sound like Trump was upset Epstein beat him to some girl or girls, a disgusting insinuation that’s not supported by the specific quotes or the actual record. Trump clearly stated Epstein hired away employees—people who WORKED FOR HIM at Mar-a-Lago. You’re spinning it to sound like some creepy personal rivalry over women, which is nowhere in the actual quotes. It’s a classic bait-and-switch, but your creative writing project doesn’t rewrite reality. In reality, Trump is the only one in Epstein’s elite social circle who took action, long before it was convenient, and banned the guy from his property. That doesn’t fit your narrative, so you contort the quote into something darker, because innuendo is all you’ve got.
To put this in context, Trump recently said that the reason he kicked Epstein out of Mar-A-Lago is because Epstein “stole” young women from him who were working at Mar-A-Lago.
This is significant, because the story from MAGA has been - for a long time - that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-A-Lago after he acted inappropriately with the daughter of a member. It was a “white knight” tale about Trump that MAGA was telling themselves; they believe he wasn’t aware of Epstein’s activities and once he did become aware, he took action.
Trump blew that entire narrative up with his statement. Here is how the BBC framed it, which is helpful:
Questions about Trump's relationship with Epstein followed him on to Air Force One on Tuesday, where he was asked to expand on comments he made the previous day in Scotland where he said: "He [Epstein] stole people that worked for me."
Asked if the employees were young women, Trump responded: "the answer is yes", and added that they were hired "out of the spa" he ran.
Trump said that one of them was Virginia Giuffre, who had said she began working at Mar-a-Lago in the summer of 2000, when she was 16.
According to court documents unsealed in 2019, Giuffre alleged she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell to give massages to Epstein while she was working at the spa.
So, the Trump supporter hears that Trump (1) was employing a 16 year-old masseuse at Mar-A-Lago, and (2) that Trump was mad at Epstein not for inappropriate behavior, but for “stealing” this underage masseuse; doesn’t pay any attention to the weirdness of all this, and instead seeks to defend Trump.
It gets worse. When I brought up that Epstein took a 14 year-old to Mar-A-Lago to meet Trump, this was the response (again, try to get through the stream-of-conciousness writing):
Again, what you conveniently do not address:
Jane did not allege any improper behavior by Trump during this encounter at Mar-a-Lago. She did not relate it to any specific abuse there at Mar-a-Lago and provided no further details about the purpose or context of the visit.
Consider the following, that while testifying, Jane blasted Epstein and Maxwell but did not accuse Trump of anything, although she obviously had the chance to do so. Why? Was she attempting to protect Trump? So what you state is hearsay with zero evidentiary or probative weight.
So the following is clearly established. Jane’s testimony confirms that Epstein took her to Mar-a-Lago but there is no indication in the reported testimony that this meeting involved any misconduct by Trump. Further, there is No testimony from the Maxwell trial directly confirming that Epstein brought women to Trump at Mar-a-Lago for illicit purposes or that Epstein brought women to Trump in any broader sense. So you smear about HE BROUGHT WOMEN TO TRUMP Is bunk. At most, it happened once that a women was brought to Mar-a-Lago and nothing nefarious happened involving Trump. So no, there is no smoking gun here. Just smoke, mirrors, and your desperate hope that if you repeat it enough, people will mistake it for substance. Nothing burger number 3.
To summarize: Yes, this is a Trump supporter brushing away the fact that JEFFREY EPSTEIN took a 14 year-old to Mar-A-Lago to meet Donald Trump.1 Just to play a fun little game: Can you imagine what the reaction would be if any of this could be said about Joe Biden? Conservative media would be writing about it for years.
It was the same pattern throughout the conversation: Trump flew on Epstein’s jet? No big deal, because there was no hard evidence that said he flew to Epstein’s island (spoiler: Many of Epstein’s crimes happened in New York). Trump said positive things about Ghisaline Maxwell? We should all be positive in our dealings with people, even criminals!
The best summary of their defense of Trump was because there has not been any indictments or charges, Trump’s myriad connections to Epstein are really just smears. Note that they say this while also simultaneously arguing that the 34 convictions in New York are “fake,” and that Bill Clinton should be tarred and feathered due to his connections to Epstein, even though he (also) has never been convicted of anything.2
They are 1000% going to move on from Epstein. Even if a smoking gun comes out and there is a video of Trump, Epstein, and underage girls, they will say it is fake or made up by A.I. If the Epstein “files” somehow get leaked and Trump is in them, MAGA is going to say he was put in there by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris (somehow).
This is sad. Can you make it worse?
Sure. This is where I tie all of this into the latest economic news and try to apply true Christian moral teachings to this moment.
This week, we got more bad news: Inflation is accelerating due to Trump’s tariffs. Here is CNBC:
On an annual basis, headline PPI increased 3.3%, the biggest 12-month move since February and well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
Services inflation provided much of the push higher, rising 1.1% in July for the largest gain also since March 2022. Trade services margins climbed 2%, coming amid ongoing developments in President Donald Trump’s tariff implementations.
I have seen a repeated refrain from people on the Left about Trump’s economic policies: MAGA voters need to get what they voted for and suffer so that they can learn their lesson. And between the Big Beautiful Bill™ and Trump’s tariffs, that is undoubtedly going to happen:
The cherry on top of all this: Elisabeth and I are in the top decile, which is the only one that benefits from Trump’s tax cuts enough to negate the effects of his tariffs. And we didn’t even vote for him! Thanks for the help, Don! Sincerely, a Kamala voter.
But the lesson here for me is two-fold:
If you are hoping for people to suffer, check your heart. If you are a Christian, a wish for suffering on someone else (even someone you don’t like) is anti-Christ, full stop.
If you are hoping for people to suffer and then learn a lesson, you will be waiting a long time.
As evidenced by my conversation with a MAGA supporter above, even if Trump’s economy fully starts going down the toilet (as opposed to just circling the bowl, like what’s happening now), they are not going to learn a lesson. They are going to find some way to excuse Trump.
Their suffering isn’t going to produce a magical change of heart. It will only make them double down on Trump even more. Two weeks ago, when we got the bad job numbers, Trump did something that (we thought) was pretty unthinkable: He fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner, who released the report.
Trump didn’t like the numbers, so he fired the person reporting them. It is truly Putinesque. And Trump’s explanations didn’t even form the basis of an argument: He said that the numbers were “revised” under Biden to make the Administration look better in the run-up to the 2024 Election.
But BLS did a huge downward revision of around 800K jobs in August of 2024, which was the most politically damaging time to do it from Kamala Harris’s perspective.3 Trump also claimed that a week after the 2024 Election, BLS again revised the numbers down after saying they were higher just before the Election. It’s an obviously laughable claim, because BLS only releases their numbers on the first of the month! Still, MAGA (including people who know better) used Trump’s talking points and justified his firing of the BLS commissioner.
MAGA is not going to turn on Trump over Epstein and they are not going to vote for Democrats even if tariffs eat away at their savings. They are not going to say that firing the BLS commissioner is crazy.
Instead of hoping that they suffer or learn a lesson, the correct Christian response is to pray for their eyes to be opened. That is a hard thing to do and it sounds like it won’t have any effect (especially if you aren’t a Christian), but the Trump voter in the Midwest suffering under the weight of his tariffs, cuts to Medicaid, and higher taxes is an image-bearer of God.
They deserve a life that is free and beautiful. You can hope that the pain changes them, but hoping for pain in general is immoral. It is easy for me to empathize with the legal immigrants who are suffering under the Trump Administration’s barbaric policies. But the real love of Christ emerges and changes you when you empathize with people who consider you an enemy.
Plenty of people hate each other for no reason. The calling of the Christian is to love people for no reason at all.
Still in the August recess, but I’m sure I’ll talk to you all again soon.
This is a minor thing, but it is pretty obvious that the witnesses in Maxwell’s trial were not going to say anything negative about Trump…he was not on trial! Witnesses are asked not to make statements about parties who aren’t relevant to the prosecution.
They are right bout Clinton!
There was also revisions to this revision in February 2025, when the downward revision was re-estimated to only be a loss of around 600K jobs. That is information that would have been helpful to Kamala prior to the Election!