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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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New poll on Trump and Epstein:

Republicans are split with 40 percent approving of the way the Trump administration is handling the Jeffrey Epstein files, 36 percent disapproving and 24 percent not offering an opinion.

This, along with Operation Warp Speed, is the only time they are willing to break with Trump. The heart and soul of the thing seems to be conspiracy beliefs.

Trump said:

“He’s dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody," Trump told reporters after being asked about frustration from his supporters over handling of the case.

"It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going. But credible information? Let them give it — anything that's credible, I would say, let them have it," Trump added.

Maybe the reason Trump doesn't understand why it keeps going is because he doesn't have an inferiority complex about class that drives him into fantasy about elite pedophile rings.

he heart and soul of the thing seems to be conspiracy beliefs.

The only reason Trump, the ridiculous candidate, became a political titan is because he alone was willing to take the side of the people who think the system is rigged, and they were willing to shoot him at "Killary" out of pure spite. The subsequent decade was only a confirmation of this dynamic. We've been living in the 2016 election since then.

Trump doing a heel turn into just another corrupt elite nullifies half of his appeal. All that remains is him being economically right wing.

fantasy

Where there is smoke, smoldering ruins and dozens of firefighters still shooting water, there's fire.

Before Trump himself started to act in this extremely and transparently suspicious manner I was under the impression that the Epstein case would ruin the lives of a few connected celebrities and rich donors and add one scandal to the CIA's list. Now I don't know what to believe.

Where there is smoke, smoldering ruins and dozens of firefighters still shooting water, there's fire.

There's people telling you there's no fire, which you interpret as evidence the fire is being covered up.

If the guys telling me there's no fire smells light gasoline and has ash on his shoes, yeah I won't believe him.