When the Justice Department released a first batch of Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday that included photographs of former President Bill Clinton, White House officials raced to amplify the importance of the new documents.
But days later, amid a second trove that contains several references to President Donald Trump, the White House is pushing a different view: Don’t believe everything you see.
Trump officials on Tuesday downplayed the latest disclosure of more than 30,000 files related to Epstein, dismissing the significance of the materials and suggesting that some that mentioned Trump were unverified or even outright fabricated. Even as the rest of Washington pored over records showing Trump repeatedly flew on Epstein’s plane, White House aides sought to highlight other matters the president is more eager to talk about.
The messaging shift — the latest in a largely unsuccessful effort by the administration to seize control of the story — has spawned frustration in Trump’s orbit and parts of the White House, where some saw the scrambled response over the last few days as just the latest stumble in a year of Epstein-related blunders and baffling communications mishaps.
“It’s just been confusing and compounding,” Matthew Barlett, a GOP strategist and former first-term Trump appointee, said of the administration’s contradictory messaging. “It’s perpetuated this news cycle, continues to give the White House and administration a massive headache of their own making, and I don’t see any remedy any time soon.”
The new records renewed debate over the comprehensiveness of the DOJ disclosures and the extent to which the administration has complied with the law demanding their release. The Justice Department seemed to try to get ahead of any unflattering revelations for Trump, issuing a call for skepticism in analyzing the new materials — at least when it came to claims about the president.
“Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department said, adding that “if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
A White House official declined to comment beyond the DOJ’s statement. As for Trump himself, the voluble president spent half the day on the golf course before making a quiet return to Mar-a-Lago. By 2 p.m. ET, officials had declared a lid, meaning Trump would not be seen or heard from for the rest of the day.
The near-total silence from Trumpworld represented a stark contrast compared to just a few days ago, when aides and allies rushed to circulate the numerous photos of Clinton in the Epstein files as part of a bid to put fresh pressure on Democrats.
And it underscored the White House’s ongoing struggle to manage a saga that has frustrated Trump and his top aides and wounded him politically — even as his MAGA base remains deeply invested in the Epstein case, and the controversy shows no signs of going away.
“This is horrifying. Trump called me a traitor for fighting him to release the Epstein files and standing with women who were raped, jailed in stalls, and trafficked to men,” GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Tuesday, referring to an image from the latest document dump. “Only evil people would hide this and protect those who participated. I pray for these women.” Once a strong Trump ally, Greene has broken with the president in recent months, in part over the Epstein case.
After the administration spent Friday and much of the weekend highlighting Clinton’s appearances in the files, Trump on Monday undercut the campaign by expressing sympathy for the former Democratic president and criticizing those who had pushed for the files’ release.
“I don’t like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown. I don’t like the pictures of other people being shown,” Trump said. “I think it’s a terrible thing.”
Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and both have insisted they have done no wrong. A Clinton representative called for the Justice Department to release all files related to the former president.
The White House has shifted its position on the Epstein files repeatedly over the last 11 months, dogged by some administration officials’ insistence when they were outside of government that the materials needed to be made public to expose high-profile wrongdoers. Since returning to office, Trump waged an extended campaign against releasing the documents that alienated close allies and put him at odds with his base, only to succumb to overwhelming pressure from Congress and sign into law a measure demanding the Justice Department make public all its materials.
The running conflict not only cost Trump credibility with those who care deeply about the matter, advisers said, but now continues to distract from a range of more critical issues that the administration could have otherwise focused on.
“I get it — it matters on Twitter and TikTok and Facebook. But it’s not where most people are right now,” one Trump adviser said of the attention surrounding Epstein. “Donald Trump needs to go out there every day and talk about how he’s making people’s lives more affordable.”
On Tuesday, White House officials tried to employ that advice, focusing their public efforts on touting new signs of economic growth and promoting a range of Trump’s policy priorities. By the afternoon, for example, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had posted or reposted on X more than three dozen times, largely on economic matters. And late in the day, the White House began livestreaming an animated video depicting Trump reading over “Santa’s naughty list,” with the words: “No coal. Just deportation.”
Still, at one point, even Leavitt waded briefly into the Epstein issue, amplifying a DOJ statement that asserted a purported letter signed ‘J. Epstein’ and addressed to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar was a fake. The letter made an apparent reference to Trump, though it did not identify him by name, with a lurid claim: “Our President also shares our love of young, nubile girls.”
“Just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual,” the DOJ said. “Nevertheless, the DOJ will continue to release all material required by law.”
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