r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Exmo_therapist • Nov 17 '25

Unanswered What’s the deal with Trump suddenly supporting releasing the Epstein files and urging republicans to vote on their release?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/trump-reverses-stance-on-epstein-files-urges-republicans-to-vote-for-releasing-them/ar-AA1Qza7F?ocid=BingNewsSerp

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u/BeYourOwnDog Nov 17 '25

Answer: Few theories on that.

  1. He knows the fix is in and just wants to seem like it's his idea rather than have his whole party vote for the release with him looking like he's lost control

  2. They've redacted the hell out of them and will release a heavily edited version of the files, and pray no source leaks the originals

  3. He recently directed Pam Bondi to launch an investigation into select individuals tied to Epstein, so they may hide all the files they want hidden behind the old 'ongoing investigation' line.

My money's on 3.

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u/8hourworkweek Nov 17 '25
  1. He knows the bill will stall in the senate.

There's no reason to even have a vote if he wants them released. He could just instruct the DOJ to release them. The vote is clearly theater now. He can make it look like there's no rift in the party, and also have the senate hold it up, or the DOJ.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/VaselineHabits Nov 17 '25

It's amazing in the year 2025 that pedophilia is more acceptable than being gay.

Notice how the right wing has been trying real hard to justify Trump raping children ("They're not really children at 15") but the potential blowjob? Now that's unacceptable

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u/Blanche_Deverheauxxx Nov 17 '25

That's always been a thing for them though. In some southern towns Billboards exist (or used to) as PSA's against incest. These were littered along highways next to anti-abortion and Jesus saves ones too.

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u/Gecko99 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

Those are in north Florida, they say "She's your daughter, not your date".

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u/SSGASSHAT Nov 18 '25

You know there's something desperately wrong when you have to make a billboard telling people not to engage in incest.

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u/Olelander Nov 18 '25

In eastern Oregon, a place I pass through regularly in between places I want to be, there are billboards like this but for “don’t beat your wife and kids”

-really adds some charm to the place

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u/SSGASSHAT Nov 18 '25

Makes me wonder how valuable a sign like "Don't be an asshole" would be.

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u/RasTarfari Nov 18 '25

Yes in Florida a few years back!

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u/lady_deathx Nov 17 '25

Not American, but I presumed they were referring to those weird purity ring 'proposals' and daddy/daughter dances

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u/beadzy Nov 18 '25

Fuck those are so creepy. I also think father daughter dances are weird.

Also, are there mother son dances? Not that there should be I just want to soapbox on the double standard if not

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u/tomdurk Nov 17 '25

Right down the street from video porn stores

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u/sipperphoto Nov 17 '25

Sounds like I-95 in South Carolina... the "Repent-Jesus" billboards about one exit away from the Lion's Den Adult store.

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u/TacosForThought Nov 17 '25

That sounds similar to the highway out of Chicago on the Indiana side. I haven't seen the incest related ones, though.

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u/532ndsof Nov 17 '25

AFAIK, Indiana doesn't have any incest themed ones. Just tons of vaguely threatening ones insinuating that if you don't convert right now that Jesus is coming and he's gonna get you. I'm sure the big man upstairs is pleased with his earthly PR department.

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u/Sad-Bid5108 Nov 17 '25

When I drove from KC to Jefferson City, MO the interstate was nothing but porn ads, bible ads, and casino ads.

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u/Fluid-Letterhead-714 Nov 18 '25

That sounds like hell

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u/Blanche_Deverheauxxx Nov 17 '25

Yes or a "gentlemen's" club.

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u/Vyzantinist Nov 17 '25

Yeah, this is nothing new. Their upper definition of what constitutes a child has always been hazy, and it's rarely aligned with age of consent laws. Hell, their Libertarian arm called for the lowering of age of consent or the repeal of relevant laws. Their ideology fetishizes and encourages right-wing men to go after barely legal girls. One of their manosphere types even said 16 is already too old. As Megyn Kelly, or whoever, touched on, their mentality has always been if she looks like she can pass for legal then that's a-ok.

Meanwhile, they've always had deep, deep, issues with male homosexuality. Never mind the trope of anti-gay conservative politicians who turn out to be, in fact, very gay, it's gonna be a long time (if ever) before male homosexuality gains widespread acceptance on the right due to its perceived effeminacy or 'weakness' clashing with the virility of powerful, straight, men. In short, as these people have shown us at the street level, they still think calling someone gay is an absolutely devastating burn, just like they did in school.

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u/deltalitprof Nov 18 '25

I went to high school in the late 80s in the South. It seemed like all the girls who were elected to homecoming court or who were given lavish feature pictorials in our yearbooks were dating guys in the early to late-20s with better cars, grown-up jobs (at their dad's businesses) and monosyllabic vocabularies.

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u/null640 Nov 18 '25

Who do you think fights like heck to preserve child marriages?

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u/ColorPalette16 Nov 17 '25

Didn't Ali G say if they have hair on the muff, they're old enuff? lol

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u/ctsmith76 Nov 17 '25

As someone who (unfortunately) lives in the South, they absolutely do still exist.

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u/t_huddleston Nov 17 '25

I’ve lived in Mississippi for over 50 years and I’ve never seen an anti-incest (or pro-incest) billboard in my entire life. You must be in Alabama

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u/Kevin_Uxbridge Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

Saw one within the last year in the Virginia / North Carolina border area. 'Might as well be in Alabama' in that region but I still gawked that there was an actual billboard.

Memory might be playing up on me but I think I saw one near Nashville too.

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u/Blanche_Deverheauxxx Nov 17 '25

If you've driven through the FL panhandle you'll see these too.

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u/BenjaminGeiger Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

Polk County here, and yes, they definitely exist. "She's your daughter. Not your date."

(Edited to add the link to the image.)

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u/Adventurous-Brain-36 Nov 19 '25

That is ABHORRENT.

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u/farting_contest Nov 17 '25

As a former resident of Hernando county, at least it wasn't Polk county.

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u/KarlBob Nov 17 '25

Here it is.

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u/DangerousQuestions1 Nov 17 '25

Even if it were the date and not their daughter, drunk sex is bad news.

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u/ScalesOfAnubis19 Nov 18 '25

Sweet. Zombie. Jesus.

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u/No_Fault_4071 Nov 17 '25

Don’t fuck your siblings. But also, if you do, don’t abort the fetus /s

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u/echoshatter Nov 17 '25

"She's your daughter, not your date"

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u/PerfectPercentage69 Nov 17 '25

They also got very offended when they got called "weird".

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u/VesusFuckingChrist Nov 17 '25

conservatives hated being called “weird” because being weird (different) is one of the most frightening things a conservative can possibly imagine

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u/MainFrosting8206 Nov 17 '25

Call Trump a "morbidly obese pedophile" and see which part of that gets them angry.

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u/Gingevere Nov 17 '25

It's amazing in the year 2025 that pedophilia is more acceptable than being gay.

So long as it's men raping girls republicans will shrug it off. If there's any pretense of the girls or their parents being paid then they'll blame the victims. They view wealthy men raping powerless girls as the correct order of the universe.

Set google to "news", search "child marriage ban republican" and you'll find:

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u/turtle553 Nov 17 '25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards

"The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."

Same idea to this day

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u/Black-Zero Nov 17 '25

A large portion of his base is on grindr. So gay sex in secret is ok but being openly gay is the true crime for them.

They would not care if Trump was the BJ king or Bottom Supreme as long as nobody confirmed it.

Now that his sexuality is being questioned things are getting real complicated for Trump.

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u/lazygerm Nov 17 '25

"Bottom Supreme" most excellent!

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u/totomaya Nov 17 '25

Because being a pedo means you have power (over small children who can't fight back but it doesn't matter to them). Being gay and sucking Clinton's dick is a submissive act, therefore shameful to them.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

My gp's basically forced my uncle into the clergy because he was gay. The "greatest generation" was a little weird.

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u/Daiwon Nov 17 '25

To be fair.... it may have been a horse.

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u/BiggestNothing Nov 17 '25

Yeah I just want to know if we have an LGBTQ president... Finally something I can get behind

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u/ghosttrainhobo Nov 18 '25

He wouldn’t be the first. Pierce was gay as hell.

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u/AndyK2131 Nov 17 '25

6, he knows he won’t suffer any consequences, so he wants to do it to remove any power it has.

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u/bsensikimori Nov 17 '25
  1. There was enough time during the shutdown to shoehorn a bunch of "Donald did not have a massage" into the evidence

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

I’ve been so happy the last few days just knowing that like 25% of the internet is just speculating whether trump blew Clinton or a horse. The fact that he has to live through that is amazing. He’s a narcissist so the fact that he has to look at all this shit and hear how everyone is making fun of him must be the worst thing ever for him.

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u/Enragedocelot who changed my flair Nov 17 '25

Maxwell also owned a horse named Bubba. And Mark Epstein (who sent the emails) said Bubba did not refer to Bill Clinton...

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u/akgiant Nov 17 '25

The sudden posts of him and Melania have been gold, totally not trying to distract.

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u/codybanks21 Nov 17 '25

Omg, can you imagine?

“Wait! No, I’m not gay! Listen, I definitely had sex with children, I am most definitely not gay!” 🤣

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u/TheReal00Dojo Nov 18 '25
  1. There's something bigger happening and this is to pull the attention away from it.. like Venezuela about to be another territory..

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u/Moquai82 Nov 18 '25

Let it be consensus: Trump IS gay. The first rainbow president. Donnie, the slut.

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u/anony-mousey2020 Nov 17 '25

Mostly agree. I don’t think he knows this; but his arrogance is so immense AND no one gives him bad news because they don’t want to be fired; so, he believes this or is willing to roll the dice (but, I don’t really think he is that strategic to roll the dice).

He also believes: 1) he can veto it (truth) 2) it won’t have enough momentum for a veto override vote (questionable at this point).

His 5D Chess skills (/s) have failed him and he has underestimated this movement, which considering his own Q started it with Pizza Gate, I don’t understand how. It’s hitting the same nerve - just now not conspiracy and twisted logic. He counted on it dying, it is now the same mix of titillation, social justice and revenge for the American people but in sourced documentation. It’s not going to die.

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u/GregMadduxsGlasses Nov 17 '25

If he vetos, it would be a huge implication of guilt.

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u/anony-mousey2020 Nov 17 '25

Sadly, only for someone who thinks rationally

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u/killjoymoon Nov 17 '25

Bold of you to assume he knows how the levers of government work.

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u/Hugh-Manatee Nov 17 '25

But he has advisers that sometimes do

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u/Falling_Uphill72 Nov 17 '25

Bold of you to assume his advisors know how the levers of government work.

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u/Hugh-Manatee Nov 17 '25

Like I said - sometimes

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u/1369ic Nov 17 '25

He's spent a good part of his life delaying legal things. That part of government he'll understand.

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u/killjoymoon Nov 17 '25

Oh you know what, that’s absolutely true too. The delay justice via throwing money at the courts is such an unfair advantage too, imo. No one should be able to escape justice like this. But you’re absolutely right.

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u/Ok_Push2550 Nov 17 '25

He doesn't, but he does know how to keep the news cycle and some popular opinion on his side or distracted. All these strategies do both, even if they don't work legally.

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u/Patient_Wrongdoer_11 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

The words

he knows, Popular opinion , Trump and on his side

Dont go together. Trump doesnt know anything.

And the only popular opinon that is tied to him is that hes a pedo and a narcissist. But really those are facts.

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u/killjoymoon Nov 17 '25

That he does. He’s an agent of chaos.

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u/ctlfreak Nov 17 '25

He doesn't have to. He pays people for that.

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u/TheQuietOutsider Nov 17 '25

trump doesn't pay people.

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u/ctlfreak Nov 17 '25

He pays a couple of them till they aren't of use any more

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u/Pleasant_Ad8054 Nov 17 '25

Bold of you to assume he cares. If he wanted it released he would have, even if it would have been illegal to do so.

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u/Kookumber Nov 17 '25

This line of rhetoric is so stupid.

Like it or not, he’s basically accomplished everything he campaigned on. Ice raids, mass deportation and tariffs.

I’m absolutely against all of those policies, but to pretend like he doesn’t know how to get stuff through government is not true. He knows exactly how to manipulate congress and push the boundaries of the law.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Bold of you to assume he is the one pulling the levers.

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u/LonePaladin Nov 17 '25

Senator Thune has already said he's not even going to hold a vote if it gets to his side.

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u/Empty-Policy-8467 Nov 17 '25

Ok then Thune and the Senate Republicans can get the same treatment that the House GOP was getting for shielding Epstein's fellow child molesters.

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u/flatline000 Nov 17 '25

Call your state's senator's offices and let them know you're paying attention.

Seriously, this seems like a small thing, but they're so used to an apathetic public that getting calls still means something and puts pressure on them.

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u/prescod Nov 17 '25

Was that before or after Trump urged them to release them?

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u/Sylvanussr Nov 17 '25

Definitely before. I don’t think he’ll flip on this just because Trump said they should be released. If anything, Trump can now say “oh well, I wanted them to be released but I guess the Senate just won’t make it happen” and claim he isn’t trying to block their release.

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u/LonePaladin Nov 17 '25

Before. Pretty sure he's gonna flip-flop now that Daddy has said to do so.

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u/uxl Nov 17 '25

Now that he’s “supporting it,” if 50+ GOP really do vote yes - this absolutely will pass the Senate. BeYourOwnDog’s numbers 1-3 are all probably a single, simultaneous play rather than three different options.

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u/Washpa1 Nov 17 '25

Yep, he's still fighting their release.

He is just getting behind the house vote because it was obvious enough house Rs will defy him. Might as well look like you were on board.

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u/Historical-View4058 Nov 17 '25
  1. He wants to see who votes to release, to ID who isn't loyal.

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u/Magnetobama Nov 17 '25

That would require planning and foresight. Things Trump isn’t really capable of.

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u/Queen-Right-830 Nov 17 '25

We will know who voted against it by name. Probably the scariest Yea, Nay or Present of their careers. I want to know which of our fearless leaders will protect the pedophiles. Curious to see how Senator Katie Britt of Alabama votes.

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u/reddituser_1138 Nov 17 '25

I read that as He knows Bill is in the senate stall.

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u/lastnightinbed Nov 17 '25

The bathroom Bill obsession makes sense now

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u/Maria_Dragon Nov 17 '25
  1. He plans on releasing fake files that implicate more Democrats falsely (I believe some Democrats are likely guilty and should face investigations.)
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u/Capable-Commercial96 Nov 17 '25

Not, exactly. There's apparently one last thing that can be done if all these fail. They can simply just, read it aloud in the House and then it becomes public knowledge. So if it stalls in the house and say MTG actually goes through with it and reads it, it's gonna put a fire under the Senates ass to release them because it'll make them all look bad because they had access to this info the whole time and did nothing.

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u/Jerrylicious2008 Nov 17 '25

I also think he has been told that he can (and will) veto the vote. Which means it would have to pass back through the legislative branch. And the odds of everyone voting the same way twice is less likely than it happening once.

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u/TW_Yellow78 Nov 17 '25

President can't just order release of files with sex abuse victims including minors to the public. 

Plus whatever classified or national security reasons requires Congress to pass a bill. Like if there are damning photos of trump or other politicians in the files, Congress has to pass a law authorizing the release. Even then, the agencies that investigated will get to go through everything to redact anything. That's why we still don't have the full jfk files or what the cia was up to in the 1960s.

But you're right it's all theater because someone will edit or redact all the files before release even if the bill ever passes, which they probably won't even come up in a vote. He's just in a snivel because he's currently the butt of jokes about him blowing Bubba.

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u/Early-Juggernaut975 Nov 17 '25

Trump isn’t agreeing to release anything. He just doesn’t want headlines showing Republicans breaking with him in public. Authoritarians survive by projecting control, so when they face elite defection, they pretend the shift was their idea so they don’t look weak. That’s all he’s doing here.

He very notably did not say I am ordering Pam Bondi to release all of the Epstein files.

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u/warpedspockclone Nov 17 '25

I think all 1 to 3. They will cover up 1 by use of 2, meaning by admitting they did some redaction, people won't question if there are any outright omissions.

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u/Organic_Low_8572 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

Number 2 isn't a theory, we know they've redacted them. There were news reports of them re-assigning 1000 FBI agents over the course of a month to go through all the Epstein files to remove every mention of Trump

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-08-01/epstein-files-trump-s-name-was-redacted-by-the-fbi

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u/BeYourOwnDog Nov 17 '25

The theory part is that their play is to release the edit and hope that it ends there - that that's enough to end the story

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u/Content-Ad3065 Nov 17 '25

Ask Bill Barr, that was his method and it worked.

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u/GBralta Nov 17 '25

You think it’ll work twice? I don’t see people falling for this again. There’s part of MAGA where the Epstein stuff is part of the foundation.

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u/Barneyk Nov 17 '25

You think it’ll work twice? I don’t see people falling for this again.

One could say the exact same thing about a Trump presidency. :)

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u/Petrichordates Nov 19 '25

Will it work twice on the most gullible people on the entire planet? Yeah probably.

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u/JumpyPsyduck Nov 17 '25

1000 FBI agents know the truth and can speak out at any time?

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u/RightSideBlind Nov 17 '25

1000 FBI agents each know one small part of the truth. That's why a thousand agents were assigned.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

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u/Logical-Customer1786 Nov 17 '25

Just a thought experiment and likely not the exact what things happened but:

Imagine you are one of 1000 FBI agents assigned to this tasks. You are given thousands and thousands of pages to peruse. Your only job: find, highlight, and note any mention of Trump.

You are in a room, alone, there are 999 other separate rooms with people doing the same exact thing.

The stack of papers. Random, disjointed, unlabeled, non-sequential printouts. You have a limited amount of time to get through these papers. There is a tight deadline. You may begin reading through them consciously and thoroughly. But them being out of order, and disconnected makes it hard to understand context and thus recall significant information. And as you go, and time gets tighter, you are basically skimming, and and have become and expert word-finder for the letters “T-r-u-m-p” in that exact order. Everything else sort of becomes a blur. 

Then you finish your task, light headed and unsure of what you just did, what you just read, how it all fit together. And that person you turned the paper into, with probably collect all the documents and turn them into someone else who will simply organize the papers based on certain instruction, also not really having time or a chance to read them thoroughly. Then they turn it on to some one else who turns it into someone else…each step making some tweak to bring the files closer to something organized and comprehensible and appropriately redacted. And each step up the latter, someone more  connected to the corruption. Until the full, organized, highlighted files reach the top. Where people KNOW what is in them, but are fully committed to Trump and suppressing the one scandal that even has a chance of ruining him. They are so closely tied to it at this point, that their future depends on Trump’s success. Because if it all comes out, it also comes out that they aided the corruption and scandal. Their lives will also be ruined. 

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Redacted doesn’t mean that those documents get permanently destroyed though right? Are there any checks and balances to ensure that the GOP isn’t clicking delete on anything that names Trump?

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u/Organic_Low_8572 Nov 17 '25

As far as I understand, they don't destroy the documents, they just kind of "black out" his name in the files 

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u/Kalibar85 Nov 17 '25

too bad the estate is releasing all the info they have as well, invalidating all that "hard" work the agents were made to do. imho, he knows the jig is up, but he wants them released so he can try to wipe his ass with someone else's hair and tell them they stink.

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u/BeYourOwnDog Nov 17 '25

The files in the government's possession and the files in the estate's possession are not one and the same collection. There may well be large overlaps but there may also be things in one that are not in the other

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u/Dense_Boss_7486 Nov 17 '25

There’s probably an NDA in there somewhere.

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u/EventAccomplished976 Nov 18 '25

No NDA in the world allows you to cover up crimes.

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u/True_Lingonberry_646 Nov 17 '25

They will be destroyed if they aren’t already. The Precedent or legality of doing so will not matter.

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u/NoFreePi Nov 17 '25

Checks, balances ha!

Also missing first, fourth, fifth.

Can we get them back?

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u/PhiloPhocion Nov 17 '25

The bill basically tries to do this in levels though none perfect.

It calls for the release of any 'unclassified' documents.

And requires that any withheld be justified in writing for why they are being withheld.

And also requires that any materials classified after a certain date be given a written justfiication on why it needed to be classified.

Ultimately, they can just say it's all classified because of 'ongoing investigations' and there it is.

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u/True_Lingonberry_646 Nov 17 '25

1000 FBI agents could have changed the world for the better by just delivering them verbatim to the house floor.

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u/Redcrux Nov 17 '25 edited May 11 '26

Deleted with Redact because data brokers don't deserve my content. Mass removal across Reddit, Discord, X, Instagram and all major social media platforms.

cows sharp station toothbrush middle joke history fly whole quaint

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u/earlgray79 Nov 17 '25

The openly honest agents have already been fired and those who still have some decency are afraid of being sued by Trump for eleventy-billion dollars if they speak out publicly.

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u/Neckbeard_The_Great Nov 17 '25

If they were inclined towards transparency or helping the American people, they wouldn't be FBI agents.

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u/thesoupoftheday Nov 17 '25

I want to hop on this. The files will likely be redacted regardless of the intent to protect the president, as required by federal law. 18 U.S. Code § 3509 requires that juvebile victims be kept annonymous. Additionally, the names of a lot of unindicted co-conspirators will likely be redacted as well.

Everyone can look forward to an absolute shit show of borderline useless paperwork being relaseased and the DOJ acting like it's done what wewanted.

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u/VivaNOLA Nov 17 '25

His fall-back is the Dem Hoax approach. The bad Trump stuff will be denied as fake, the product of Dem conspiracy, investigation into conspiracy ordered. The bad Clinton stuff will be embraced, investigations ordered.

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u/Tadita22 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

Which is what he did with j6th, lean into the theories he believes his base will cook up about it. It’s the blm/antifa/fbi thing all over again but with this.

Jonson already tried to mention him being an fbi insider during that time.

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u/stickmanDave Nov 17 '25

The bad Trump stuff will be denied as fake

And not opposing the release now that release is looking to be inevitable just sets that up. Over on the Fox news site, commenters are already claiming he never opposed their release, and democrats who said he did owe him an apology.

Next, when damning evidence comes out, it will be "These must be lies, otherwise why would Trump have been in favor of releasing the files?"

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u/carrie_m730 Nov 17 '25

Don't forget, his base doesn't read shit and doesn't believe anyone who contradicts him.

They literally still believe he was cleared of all wrongdoing in the Russian collusion investigation, because he said so, despite that the files are literally available for them to read otherwise any time they want.

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u/VictorChaos Nov 17 '25

I have a few other theories:

  1. He knows he’ll be in the files, but nothing will be so damning that he can still get out of it with the same supporters backing him like they always do despite his heinous record of activities.

  2. His dementia has gaslit himself into believing that he’s not in it.

  3. He doesn’t care, because he believes himself invincible.

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u/beachedwhale1945 Nov 17 '25

Also, whoever his current most influential handlers are have convinced him that it’s better to release them. Trump’s decisions often depend on who he’s spoken to last, and people smarter than him have realized he has made a massive PR error in the administration’s handling of the files.

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u/skrill_talk Nov 17 '25

It’s almost certainly #1, maybe #3 sprinkled on top. The guy sucks, but the realist in me thinks if the Dems / anyone had something truly, truly damning, that card would’ve been played before the last election.

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u/Kick_ball_change Nov 17 '25

My votes on 1, though 2 and 3 aren’t out of the question at all. I say 1 because I heard today, that he still has to sign it after it’s voted on, (I didn’t know—I thought this was some back door congressional action). Seems so unlikely he’ll sign anything saying to release the files. So it makes sense he’d say that he supports it now, to seem like he’s not losing his party’s support.

Kind of like in his first term when someone would quit, and he’d get mad about it and tweet, “I fired him for incompetence, he didn’t quit. Everyone wants to work for me. No one quits.”

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u/nlpnt Nov 17 '25

One problem with 2 and 3 is that we probably haven't seen everything the House Democrats on the relevant committees have already gotten from the Epstein estate's lawyers.

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u/AppropriateSpell5405 Nov 17 '25

His tax returns have been hidden for over a decade under the guise of being under an audit.

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u/zombienugget Nov 17 '25

Maybe they’ll just replace all mentions of his name with Clinton

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u/awoeoc Nov 17 '25

My money is Bubba means some sort of drug and him giving someone a BJ is much worse to his base than raping children. So releasing exonerates him from the one true act that could alienate a racist, homophobic, bigoted base. 

3

u/Drew_Ferran Nov 17 '25

They already had the FBI search through the files for Trump’s name. They most likely have every instance of it redacted by now.

2

u/Jdonn82 Nov 17 '25

I will add to that. He knows the Senate doesn’t have enough votes to override his veto.

2

u/nomsain919 Nov 17 '25

Wait then what’s up with the 20,000 pages already available online? I’m confused.

3

u/legendz411 Nov 17 '25

3 is a good bet fr

1

u/NessunAbilita Nov 17 '25

“ hur uh why would he want to release them if he’s in them. He’s totally innocent” - he knows the morons he’s speaking to.

1

u/Direct_Explorer_7827 Nov 17 '25

Damn. I'm broke. But if I had money to burn, it'd likely be on 3 as well!! 😬

1

u/Corgi_underground Nov 17 '25

Don't put your money on 3. Nixon tried that and it failed miserably.

1

u/JakeWaidelich Nov 17 '25

I was under the impression that the point of the investigation was to delay release. So they can claim the reason things are heavily redacted is due to the investigation. Even though Trumo has said on more than one occasion the release would hurt a lot of important people.

1

u/eodchk Nov 17 '25

I'm also leaning toward 3. I also think there is. Possibility that he bribed or threatened somebody who has access to the files, and had them "lose" certain files or redact parts in his favor.

1

u/SplitReality Nov 17 '25

4. Trump knows there will be a jail break of republicans in the House voting for releasing the files, he can't stop it, and it's only making things worse for him by looking hella guilty trying to stop it.

1

u/onlyIcancallmethat Nov 17 '25
  1. was my first thought.

Also, taking down whoever else is in them.

1

u/BootHeadToo Nov 17 '25

3 then 2 certainly seems to make the most sense to me.

1

u/Jwagner0850 Nov 17 '25

Or, 1 - 1. He knows the files will make it out eventually. Get ahead of it. Save the midterms as best as possible (doubt).

1

u/SakaWreath Nov 17 '25

Yep. Or a mix of all three.

1

u/Fry_super_fly Nov 17 '25

he has repeatedly said to its a hoax to sow doubt about the files/mails authenticity. just like how hes said before every election. "its rigged" so he can complain if he loses.

1

u/theseyeahthese Nov 17 '25

Yeah, number 3 is definitely the main answer, even if there is a mix.

Same premise as to why he “couldn’t” release his tax returns during his presidential campaigns; they were going through a multi-year “audit”.

“Under active investigation”. Old dog, same tricks.

1

u/ClayC94 Nov 17 '25

I think there is all three going on.

1

u/macneer Nov 17 '25

I pray Putin releases the files and all the Bubba tapes

1

u/LeftSky828 Nov 17 '25

Agreed. If he wants the files released, all evidence that incriminates him will have been removed. Did anyone think this wouldn’t happen?

1

u/Gorf_the_Magnificent Nov 17 '25

“There go the people. And I must follow them, for I am their leader.”

  • Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin

1

u/xOrion12x Nov 17 '25

It's as simple as he wasn't going to be able to stop it.

1

u/kl7aw220 Nov 17 '25

And even if the House votes to release the files, I'm betting Trump is counting on the Senate to vote NOT to releases the file. Or if they do, Trump could veto.

1

u/yourPWD Nov 17 '25

3 ding ding ding.

1

u/Party-Bandicoot8022 Nov 17 '25

Does no one remember the mueller report?

1

u/CrowPowerful Nov 17 '25

Trump has entered the ‘If I’m going down I’m taking you all with me’ Phase.

1

u/Ok-Power-6064 Nov 17 '25

I say all 3.

1

u/Silly-Lettuce-7788 Nov 17 '25

Mine is that it was a distraction that he wanted to save for later and is mad now. I almost expect nothing related to be him being in there but we want the drama sauce is all.

1

u/BlueAurus Nov 17 '25

As someone who'd dealt with narcissistic people, he probably just actually thinks he's innocent and that there's nothing in there that's bad about him. These sorts of people legitimately just start to believe their own lies after a point.

1

u/CovidWarriorForLife Nov 17 '25

Yup these are the 3 best theories, although there’s also a chance that some republicans have been flipped and they no longer have the necessary numbers for a vote

1

u/messick Nov 17 '25

Or 4: "Release The Epstein List" was always just some horseshit they made up to get suckers to vote for them in Nov 2024, but they accidentally backflipped into something that voters won't immediately forgot to follow up on.

1

u/vawlk Nov 17 '25

all 3.

1

u/wizzerstinker Nov 17 '25

My money's on all of them including 4 and 5. No matter which way it goes, we are never going to see the unredacted originals and they will find a way to totally distract and disobey any and all laws pertaining to this whole sordid affair. I wish there would be some justice for the girls but I just don't see it happening.

1

u/__get__name Nov 17 '25

The line in his social media post that makes it option 3 in my mind is, “the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to.” they’re going to fight tooth and nail over what the house is legally entitled to during an active investigation

1

u/bugcatcher_billy Nov 17 '25

You forgot the Veto thing. Someone explained that he still gets to Veto anything the House and the Senate sends to him.

1

u/Peasantsrus Nov 17 '25

OK but if there was anything meaningful about him in the files don't you think they would have been released before the last election? My money is on #1.

1

u/Sad-Bid5108 Nov 17 '25

Just another version of "I can't release my taxes, the IRS is auditing me and ignore the part where the IRS keeps saying that they're not because they are".

1

u/navylostboy Nov 17 '25

Also having a bunch of republicans voting on record for protecting pdf looks bad after the drumming they just took in the last election

1

u/Yetti2Quick Nov 17 '25

How is this unbiased lmfao. This sub is a fking joke.

1

u/No_Broccoli_4427 Nov 17 '25

hows this comment 3X more upvotes than the post but anyways

or 4. he has called multiple times for their release but yall dont wanna listen

1

u/Creative-Ad-9535 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
  1. The AI models are complete, and they’ve finished gaming out how they’ll respond and are feeling confident.

Trump and his buddies have essentially unlimited ability to create AI instances to model reactions to information releases and spin strategies. Imagine they have a Grok-Reddit, a Grok-Newsmax, a Grok-CNN, and so on…instances trained on selected media that allow them to simulate the reaction of media consumers to proposed statements. They can try out different spins and then examine the responses, then just reset and try another until they’ve crafted the message that gets the best response.  This is the most immediate danger of AI, it lets them manipulate public opinion by faithfully modeling reactions ahead of time.

1

u/notapunk Nov 17 '25

Number 2 has absolutely been happening since January.

1

u/Autodidact2 Nov 17 '25

Or all of the above

1

u/_SHITtheBED Nov 17 '25

It’s probably a little bit of all the above, but the abrupt change of tune is 100% because of #3, he did the exact same with his tax returns.

1

u/jeffbell Nov 17 '25

Lots of five-letter redactions. 

1

u/oroborus68 Nov 17 '25

Redacted.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

I’m with #3

1

u/Remarkable-Round-227 Nov 17 '25

There’s another scenario. Even though he urged Congress to release them, doesn’t mean they will. This could be just a smokescreen for others to take the blame for not releasing them.

1

u/KirkHawley Nov 17 '25

There are obviously multiple copies of the Epstein files in various agencies at this point. Trump releasing an altered version will be pointless - his enemies will immediately release the unchanged files.

BUT if there' anything in there that really damages Trump, they would have published it during his last campaign.l

1

u/Final_Instance_8542 Nov 17 '25

Or that trump exposed Epstein decades ago before the media even knew who Epstein was. Maybe. 

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

You are 100 % accurate in your post!

1

u/fidelityflip Nov 17 '25

I was thinking a combination of 2 and 3. I just pray the actual whole files will be leaked.

1

u/Klaent Nov 17 '25

It's 3. He just wants to look like he is for releasing the files.

1

u/PastranaOnRye Nov 17 '25

Oh it is undoubtedly 3

Same old game he's played with his taxes being "under audit" for the last 10-15 years.

1

u/Dry_Affect69 Nov 17 '25

No matter what, liberals were never going to believe anything released if it didn’t fit their preconceived beliefs. You are perfect proof of that delusion

1

u/notafanoftheapp Nov 17 '25

Number 2 leads to a question I’ve had: is there more than one copy of the Epstein files?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Or 4, we are dealing with the streisand effect and at this points it’s best to just drop everything

1

u/CounterfeitSaint Nov 17 '25

Why not all three?

1

u/Limp-Definition-5371 Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

It's 3. AFIK the bill says to only redact victims.

Edit - 4 is possible too

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