The MAGA agita over Donald Trump’s about-face on the Jeffrey Epstein files has driven the president to make ceaseless phone calls to allies, saying he needs a “big thing” to divert attention from Epstein, author Michael Wolff said this week. (Watch the video below.)
Trump thinks he may have found his escape at the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, added Wolff, who has written several books about the president.
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“Let me go back about a week or so, or 10 days, when Trump started to say to everyone who would listen — and everyone listens to Donald Trump — to staffers and on the phone calls, the relentless phone calls that he’s constantly making, he said, ‘I need a big thing. I need a big thing,’” Wolff said on the Daily Beast’s new podcast, “Inside Trump’s Head.” (11:51)
“What’s the ‘big thing?’” Wolff asked rhetorically. “And everyone understood that this was code for, I need a distraction from Epstein. What’s the thing that will move us beyond that?”
Deploying troops to Washington, D.C., apparently hasn’t worked in that regard, and the possibility of zeroing in on progressive mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani didn’t gain traction either, Wolff said.
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Trump’s next solution?
Playing off the summit, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doubts will make progress, Trump will pull the U.S. out of involvement in the war, Wolff predicted.
“He’s going to sacrifice Ukraine for Epstein,” Wolff said. “Essentially, this is, in his mind, a trade. It is the MAGA people who have pressed this Epstein issue constantly. I mean, they’re the threat.” (16:32)
But that won’t work either, Wolff predicted.
Co-host Joanna Coles also noted the prospect of Trump attempting to force Ukraine to surrender large chunks of land for a deal.
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“Exactly,” Wolff said.
“The Epstein drumbeat is real,” Wolff said. “It is unceasing and it is threatening, most of all, to Donald Trump.” (18:57)
In response to a Daily Beast request for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung called Wolff “a lying sack of shit.”
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Attorney General Pam Bondi once trumpeted that she had Epstein’s “client list” on her desk, whetting anticipation from MAGA followers that the files would reveal Democrats’ alleged criminal involvement with the late sex offender. But then the Department of Justice essentially announced last month there was no there there, and the case was closed. That prompted some in MAGA circles to accuse Trump, who called the files a “hoax,” of a cover-up and perhaps of personal guilt in the Epstein scandal.
