You are right and I actually didn’t give the Epstein stuff much thought till now. The last time I paid attention to it was during the Prince Andrew BBC interview fallout…
What IS illuminating though is what all this reveals about the state of the conservative movement…And I agree we can’t have conservatism hinge on blind loyalty to Trump (nor any one individual) and of course not blind loyalty to party either — yet the everything-is-conspiracy are totally sabotaging too…Almost to a nihilistic degree.
Everything is conspiracy types* or people*
Trump has never believed the unhinged conspiracy theorist found in MAGA though he seems to have fun garnering their votes by entertaining their theories. Same goes for “send them all back”, “balance the busget tomorrow”, “end Ukraine in one week”, etc. He understands the sentiment of these things but he also understands the art of the deal means not getting everything you want.
Always remember Trump is NYC Democrat of the blue dog tradition from the 50’s era. He is a populist and a patriot.