Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and the Billionaire Protection Racket

The two-week political crisis Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are facing over the Epstein cover-up is just a symptom of the deeper rot in this administration. The White House and Republican-led Congress operate like a protection and enrichment racket for corrupt billionaires and criminals.

The same motivation that drove Trump to push a budget cutting 20 million Americans off Medicaid and taking food away from poor kids to fund billionaire tax breaks is the same motivation behind his effort—along with Pam Bondi and the rest of his cronies—to keep you from knowing who’s in the Epstein files and who was on those flight logs.

Trump only cares about enriching himself and protecting his corrupt friends. That enrichment isn’t just financial—it’s about shielding them from consequences, whether it’s white-collar fraud or pardoning the cop beaters from the January 6th riot to exploiting young girls on Epstein’s island. It's disgusting. And it's everything that most Americans—including myself—despise about our politics. The rich and powerful are almost never held accountable.

During the 2008 financial crisis, tens of millions of Americans lost their homes and had their lives upended. No one responsible paid the price. As much as I admire Barack Obama—and I’m proud I dropped out of college to work for him—I hold him accountable for failing to bring justice to those who wrecked our economy. Whether it’s the banks, Diddy, or whatever the hell happened to Epstein, it’s the same story: the rich get away with it, again and again, while working people get crushed.

But here’s the good news: Americans are waking up. A new CBS poll just showed Trump’s approval in free fall. Slowly, yes—but it’s happening. He’s gone from above 50% when he took office—when people were willing to give him a shot on real issues like grocery prices, housing, the border, and Ukraine—to now hovering in the low 40s. He is squandering every bit of goodwill he had.

And there are still millions of Americans—frustrated, hurting—who haven’t fully turned on him yet, but are on the edge. They’re holding out hope that someone will fix what’s broken in their lives. I know he won’t. And more people are starting to see that. Every day he focuses on circus politics, covers for sex traffickers, and lines the pockets of his rich friends, more Americans are going to realize they’ve been conned. And they’re going to get angry.

That’s when we have to be ready. Not to dunk on them. Not to shame them. But to reach out, meet them where they are, and have real conversations. These folks won’t become Democrats overnight—let’s be clear about that—but they can come back to reality. And if they do, we can start rowing in the same direction again—toward a justice system that holds the powerful accountable, toward a government that actually builds things, provides health care, and helps people live with dignity.

This is a moment for the Democratic Party to reclaim its identity: the party of working people. The party of justice. The only party that gives a damn whether you can retire with dignity, raise a family, and live a life of purpose.

So yes—dig into the Epstein case. Call out the distraction politics Trump is running (like his ridiculous calls to jail Barack Obama and Adam Schiff.) But more importantly, use this moment to tell the truth about the system itself. Our politics are broken. Our government is broken. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

People are waking up. Let’s meet them where they are—and show them there’s a better way forward.