Donald Trump is so freaked out about whatever is in the Epstein files that he went to the brink of war against our NATO allies to distract from it. But that ordeal is over given Trump once again went full TACO: Trump always chickens out. In just two weeks, Trump went from demanding the US needs to own Greenland saying, “Anything less than that is unacceptable” to now pathetically declaring he has “concepts of a plan” with zero ownership of Greenland and no details.
That ordeal wasted two weeks of our lives. It’s now time to re-focus on issues that truly demand our attention—and they are the exact issues Trump doesn’t want discussed.
1. Epstein files. The Epstein Files Transparency Act—that Trump signed into law-mandated the full release of the files in the Trump regime’s possession by December 19. While we received a few documents that day, a month has passed yet nothing else has been released. Adding to the BS is that Trump’s own DOJ officials recently revealed that more than two million documents have yet to be shared-- meaning that less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released. AG Pam Bondi—who may actually be fired before you finish reading this article—commented weeks ago that the DOJ “remains in various phases of review and redaction.”
Well, where are the files?! That was the very question posed by a group of Epstein survivors in a letter to the Justice Department’s Inspector General last week. These brave women also slammed DOJ for “selectively” redacting documents to further their agenda yet failing to redact the names of survivors as mandated by the law. They wrote, “The manner in which these materials were released reflects serious failures in redaction practices, survivor protection, and oversight.” In addition, in the past two days, lawyers for the Epstein survivors have been demanding the files in the press, like Jennifer Plotkin who told The Guardian “The government continues to avoid accountability and disregards the victims.” And on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia made it clear, “Donald Trump is leading a White House coverup right now of the Epstein files.”
The release of these files are both about bringing closure to the survivors and holding those involved accountable. Those are two things Trump doesn’t care about. We need to return to clamoring for the files release!
2. Trump corruption hits new levels! I wrote last May about Trump being the most corrupt American President ever. However, at that time, I didn’t know the full extent of his grift. Well, thanks to the NY Times in-depth reporting earlier this week, we can better asses the corruption.
The Times determined that “Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion.” They added, “We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.” Yep, Trump has made nearly $1.5 billion in one year using the office of the White House like it’s Donald J. Trump, Inc.
Examples include Trump’s shakedown of media companies with his baseless defamation lawsuits that raked in $90.5 million in settlements since his re-election. Keep in mind, Trump sued these media outlets in his personal capacity meaning he personally keeps the settlements. These companies including ABC News, Meta, YouTube and Paramount all paid him in essence extortion money/bribes because as President he can use the DOJ, FCC and other agencies to target them.
There was also Qatar giving Trump a $400 million jet—that he will personally keep—and $28 million from Amazon for a documentary about Melania Trump. But the biggest grift as the Times documented was Trump’s cryptocurrency scams. As the Times noted, “The vast majority of his new wealth has come from crypto investment projects run by the Trump family including World Liberty Financial, stablecoin USD1, meme coin tokens.” How this scam works is that “People who hope to influence federal policy, including foreigners, can buy his family’s coins, effectively transferring money to the Trumps.” One glaring example was a United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm that announced last year it would deposit $2 billion into a Trump firm. Then just two weeks later, Trump gave the country access to advanced AI chips.
It’s not just the NY Times reporting on this corruption. The Center for American Progress (CAP) started the Trump’s Take tracker and detailed nearly $2 billion-worth of cash and gifts have boosted the Trump family fortune in his first year in office.
We have never seen this level of corruption by an American president before. You must be asking: How can Trump get away with this open level of corruption?! For starters, I believe too many dismiss this as simply what Trump does. But from a practical matter, Trump controls the DOJ so they will never investigate him. Add to that, the broad immunity the corrupt Supreme Court bestowed upon Trump. Despite that, we must demand Trump be prosecuted for this open corruption and House Democrats need to investigate if after they win the House this midterm.
3. The Economy and Trumpflation: This demands far more coverage. A series of new polls released over the past few weeks are telling us people are hurting financially. On Thursday, the NY Times released a poll that found only 32 percent of voters said the economy was better today than a year ago. (Who are these people?!) A new Reuters-Ipsos poll finds Trump’s approval on economy is now down to 34% with even less--30%--approving his handling of inflation. Those numbers are not based on vibes but backed up by data. Unemployment is up more than 10% since Trump came to office last January—and it would be higher if a chunk of people didn’t give up looking for jobs in December. And just 584,000 jobs were created in 2025—the lowest since the pandemic by far given that more than 2 million added in 2023 and 2024.
On inflation, a new study finds that we are the ones in fact paying for Trump’s idiotic tariffs that imposed a baseline of 10% and ranging up to 50% on imports. As the Kiel Institute for the World Economy found, American consumers “bore 96 percent of the costs incurred by President Trump’s tariffs last year.” They noted that firms importing goods into the U.S. absorbed only 4 percent of the costs from the levies. We, the people paid the rest—which raised roughly $200 billion last year. That means by way of his tariffs, Trump imposed one of the big tax increases ever on Americans. The higher prices you are seeing at the grocery stores should be called Trumpflation because he created it.
Trump was able to distract from these issues with the threat of war over Greenland. That’s over. It’s time we return to focus on these far more important issues. These are the ones that impact people’s lives and are the ones Trump wants to avoid!
Dean Obeidallah is host of SiriusXM Radio's The Dean Obeidallah Show, writer, lawyer and comedian. Saving America one fact and punchline at a time -- not necessarily in that order!
The Dean’s Report is a Free newsletter that doesn’t serve up the corporate media’s “both sides” BS. The stakes for our freedoms and democracy are too high for anything but the truth. I promise to make you better informed—and make you laugh (when possible!)
