"Would you declassify the Epstein files?" Fox News' Rachel Campos-Duffy asked. Trump responded, "Yeah, yeah, I would."
That clip was circulated widely online, including by the Trump War Room -- the social media account of Trump's campaign operation. The account posted it to X with the caption: "President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files."
But Trump's full answer to the question wasn't shown until it played on Will Cain's radio show.
Trump went on to say in the exchange with Campos-Duffy: "I don't know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It'd be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one."
In September 2024, Trump made a more firm pledge to release
Epstein files during a podcast with Lex Fridman.
Fridman, in conversation with Trump, said "it's just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public."
"It's very interesting, isn't it? It probably will be, by the way, probably," Trump said.
"If you're able to, you'll be --" Fridman started before Trump jumped in.
"Yeah, I'd certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago," Trump said. "They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing but I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it."
Asked on Fox News if the DOJ would publish Epstein’s client
list, Pam Bondi replied: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s
been a directive by President Trump.” Bondi and the White House have since said
that the attorney general was referring to the entire tranche of documents
related to the Epstein prosecution, rather than a “client list.”
In May, Attorney General Bondi informed Mr. Trump that his name was in the Epstein files (which of course, it is), though it is not clear how often, or in what context, it appears.
So the President is taking the only course of action- stonewall- he can, strategically. He has not released the documents while he figures out how some can be released without himself being implicated. That's a tall order and he and the fully-owned Justice Department would come under serious suspicion if the documents were exposed with the extensive, and likely awkward, redactions necessary.
Yet, the public and the media are being denied the complete files. As a distraction, the Justice Department asked a court (unsuccessfully) to unseal the grand jury transcripts because it knew that a) judges don't like to approve such a thing; and b) the grand jury information is but a tiny portion of the entirety. Through it all, the President's popularity has understandably plummeted as it becomes clearer that middle-aged Donald Trump (and possibility female members of his family) was involved in very nefarious activities of a sexual or financial nature with Jeffrey Epstein.
It is conventional, and probably valid, wisdom that the President has taken a hit politically because he promised far more than he could deliver. "I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it." Compounding the problem was the strong suggestion from the Attorney General that those files would see the light of the day. Once she saw whose name was in, and probably saturated, the files, Bondi sang a different tune.
And now that Attorney General, who spoke too soon on Epstein, has made another rookie mistake. It is of the same kind, promising more than she can deliver.
Bondi: "Let me be crystal clear: crime in DC is ending and ending today." pic.twitter.com/oEhCHxG360
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 11, 2025
Bondi is referring to the deployment of approximately 800 National Guard soldiers to the District of Columbia, which began late on August 7, as well as placing the local police department "under direct federal control," in the President's words. He can do the latter for "federal purposes" under terms of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act when he determines there are "special conditions of an emergency nature."
Crime is ever-present, especially in major American cities (and some small towns), so there is no "emergency, " especially with violent crime in D.C. lower than it has been the past 30 years. The National Guard is part of the military, not part of law enforcement. Issues of coordination with D.C. police are unresolved and the soldiers will not be operating under the same rules (such as the wearing of masks) as do the municipal police.
Nonetheless, those issues, as well as what this portends for other Democratic-run cities as the Trump Administration continues, are a matter for another day, given that I started this post talking about an apparently unrelated matter.
But only apparently. Trump/Bondi nearly promised disclosure of the Epstein records. They have not done so (and cannot afford to do so in full) and President Trump has taken a political hit for it.
Crime in DC is ending and ending today. Obviously, Democrats cannot on facts win the political argument over National Guard soldiers being sent to the city and the city's police going under federal control. When it comes to crime, facts are optional; they are completely irrelevant. People just know that crime is going up whether it is or it is not, as long as Republicans claim it is rising and Fox News runs frequent video of black people vandalizing, looting, or beating citizens up. If a Democrat notes that crime is declining, Republicans respond with "even one rape (or shooting or whatever) is too many" or "tell that to" or whatever the zeitgeist demands. The media says "people aren't feeling it," which is their way of saying "you're an idiot even for bringing it up."
Yet, Democrats can hold Republicans up to the standard they've set for themselves: crime disappears. They demanded disclosure of all Epstein documents. Now they say that crime will be vanquished, a goal even Superman could not achieve.
Hold them to it. Emphasize the Administration's promise now. The Attorney General has made a vow neither she nor President Trump can fulfill. Make them own it. And when crime in the nation's capital persists- whether it's down or up- remind everyone that Attorney General Pam Bondi said she would whip it... crush it... smother it.
Then Democrats themselves could condemn crime, and more credibly than even centrist/moderate Democrats now do. They won't do it, of course, even those Democrats who disingenuously decry "woke" culture, and that goes to the heart of the party's problem. But they should.
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