In the sweltering heat of August 2025, the corridors of American political power are swirling with intrigue, scandal, and a relentless barrage of distractions. At the center of it all stands President Donald Trump, whose administration is grappling with the ever-expanding fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal—a controversy that refuses to recede into the background, no matter how many headlines are thrown in its path.
According to reporting from Charlie Sykes on August 12, the White House has been vigorously deploying a variety of diversionary tactics. These range from reviving the much-debated Russia investigation and accusing former President Barack Obama of treason, to more outlandish moves like taking aim at Coca-Cola for its sugar content and reigniting Trump’s long-standing feud with comedian Rosie O’Donnell. In a striking escalation, active-duty troops have even been deployed onto the streets of two American cities. The message, intentional or not, is clear: the administration is willing to do almost anything to shift the public’s gaze away from the Epstein crisis.
Yet, as Sykes pointed out on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” these distractions have a cost. “We can’t ignore the fact that there are now active-duty troops on the streets of two American cities. We can’t ignore that this is obviously just a test case for Trump to do the same thing in places like New York and Chicago.” The nation’s resources, Sykes warns, are being diverted from the real issues that keep Americans safe, secure, and healthy. “That’s a huge vulnerability for Trump,” he explained, noting that while Trump’s base sees him as the “law and order” president, the question remains: who is actually looking after the bad guys if federal law enforcement is busy chasing the president’s personal agendas?
But the distractions don’t stop at home. In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, Michael Wolff—the journalist and author whose book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House became a bestseller—claimed that President Trump is actively seeking a “big thing” to redirect the country’s attention from his alleged links to Epstein. Wolff described Trump’s efforts as “relentless,” with the president making constant calls to aides and allies, demanding a major distraction. “Let me go back about a week or so, or 10 days, when Trump started to say to everyone who would listen—and everyone listens to Donald Trump—to staffers and on the phone calls, the relentless phone calls that he’s constantly making, he said, ‘I need a big thing. I need a big thing,’” Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast.
Wolff contends that the “big thing” could be Ukraine, especially with Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15. The suggestion is explosive: that Trump may be willing to sacrifice U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a trade-off to placate his MAGA base and draw attention away from the Epstein scandal. “He’s going to sacrifice Ukraine for Epstein,” Wolff said. “Essentially, this is, in his mind, a trade. It is the MAGA people who have pressed this Epstein issue constantly. I mean, they’re the threat.”
Before landing on Ukraine, Trump had reportedly considered other targets for distraction, including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. But, as Wolff noted, “It didn’t get that traction. I mean, Epstein still goes on behind everything. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, that drum beat.” The president’s attempts to shift the narrative have become almost frenetic, with each failed distraction only underscoring the persistence of the Epstein controversy.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the Epstein scandal is being revisited with renewed vigor. U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican serving on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has insisted that former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta—the man who oversaw Epstein’s infamous 2008 plea deal—can still be called to testify before Congress. Acosta’s plea deal allowed Epstein to plead guilty to two prostitution-related felonies, resulting in a mere 13 months in jail, despite police having identified dozens of victims. Critics, including victims and legal experts, argue that this leniency enabled Epstein to continue abusing minors until his 2019 arrest in New York.
“This does not take Alex Acosta off the table,” Luna stated in a message to The Palm Beach Post. “At any time, he can be called to testify.” Acosta, who later served as President Trump’s Secretary of Labor before resigning amid public outrage over his handling of the Epstein prosecution, is not currently on the Oversight Committee’s witness list. Curiously, his former superior, ex-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is slated to testify—even though Gonzales was not cited in the Justice Department’s 347-page report on the Epstein case. That report found no professional misconduct but did cite Acosta for “poor judgment.”
Luna has been vocal in her calls for transparency, likening the need for openness in the Epstein investigation to the declassification of JFK assassination records. Speaking at a Turning Point USA gathering in Tampa in July, she declared, “This model of transparency in the declassification of the JFK records is literally what they should be doing with Jeffrey Epstein.” She added, “If you’re given a position of power or a platform, and you don’t speak out against injustices, you’re just as complicit as the injustice that occurred.”
Despite the mounting pressure, the process of bringing figures like Acosta before Congress remains mired in political maneuvering. Luna, who has previously introduced legislation to place Trump on Mount Rushmore, expressed uncertainty over why Acosta was not included on the initial witness list. The two other Floridians on the committee—Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat Maxwell Frost—have not commented publicly on the issue.
All the while, the Epstein scandal continues to cast a long shadow over Trump’s presidency. The persistent drumbeat of allegations—amplified by biographers, lawmakers, and the media—has made it increasingly difficult for the administration to control the narrative. Trump’s efforts to distract, whether through domestic deployments or high-stakes diplomacy, have only highlighted the depth of the crisis and the lengths to which the White House will go to keep the public’s attention elsewhere.
As the nation watches Trump prepare for his meeting with Putin in Alaska and Congress debates whom to call to account for Epstein’s crimes, one thing is clear: the search for distractions has become a story of its own. The American public, caught between spectacle and substance, is left to wonder what will finally bring clarity—or closure—to a scandal that refuses to fade.
