Here’s a question: Why would a president who just kidnapped a foreign leader, threatened to invade a NATO ally’s territory, and presided over ICE agents killing an American mother be trying to distract from something? According to longtime Trump biographer Michael Wolff, the answer is Jeffrey Epstein.

WHAT’S GOING ON: Speaking on the Daily Beast’s “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast, Wolff laid out what he sees as Trump’s strategy: create so much chaos—Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Minneapolis under occupation—that nobody has bandwidth left to keep demanding the Epstein files.

“Obviously, Epstein remains a potentially mortal threat to Donald Trump and he knows it and that’s why he is doing his Trumpian best to distract from it and create an entirely other counter-narrative,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles.

THE DETAILS: Wolff claims he’s spoken to people inside the White House about the timing of Trump’s escalating foreign adventures, which coincide with mounting pressure over the Epstein documents.

The Justice Department has already blown past its December 19, 2025 deadline to release all files, claiming it needs to review “five million more pages.”

ZOOM OUT: Wolff also pointed to Trump’s recognition that his domestic situation is deteriorating.

The murder of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis, has created what Wolff called “a catastrophic mess-up, not to mention a piece of catastrophic cruelty.”

According to Wolff, Trump has acknowledged the political damage: “He said people are seeing these ICE videos and crying over them.” The solution? “Which is why you then take over Venezuela and Greenland and Iran.”

BUT BUT BUT: The White House, naturally, responded with its standard eloquence.

Communications director and resident troll Steven Cheung called Wolff “a lying sack of s–t” with “a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.” Very normal statement from a functioning democracy.

BOTTOM LINE: Trump was close friends with the disgraced sex trafficker for years before their falling out over—of all things—staff poaching. He signed the law forcing the Epstein files’ release. And now his own Justice Department is slow-walking the documents while he creates international crises.

Coincidence? Wolff doesn’t think so. And watching Trump flip off a factory worker for calling him a “pedophile protector,” it’s hard to see the behavior of someone with nothing to hide.

Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act against Minnesota protesters opposing his immigration gestapo—because OF COURSE when people object to armed federal agents going door-to-door demanding papers and shooting residents, his response is more authoritarianism. Right now, 2,000-3,000 armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents “kidnapping innocent people” in unmarked vans, pulling over citizens demanding their papers, and ordering neighbors to identify “where their neighbors of color live”—literal fascist tactics straight from the playbook. Read the full story.

Renee Nicole Good still had a pulse when EMTs finally reached her—after ICE agents told a doctor trying to help “I don’t care” and forced paramedics to abandon their ambulance and walk through snow to reach her. Newly released records show Good was unresponsive but alive when first responders pulled her from her vehicle more than six minutes after federal agents shot her, raising the horrifying question: Did ICE’s “scene control” kill her? Read the full story.

148 House Democrats joined Republicans to pass a bill sending $3.3 billion in military handouts to Israel while banning all U.S. funding for UNRWA—the agency feeding millions of Palestinian refugees—and blocking cooperation with any international body investigating Israeli war crimes. This despite 75% of Democrats opposing more military aid to Israel and large majorities describing Israel’s actions as genocide, proving once again that the Democratic establishment serves donors and the military-industrial complex over their own voters. Read the full story.

Donald Trump told Reuters that “we shouldn’t even have an election” this November, openly floating the idea of canceling midterms (again) because—and this is the quiet part he said out loud—”the sitting president always loses the midterm.” Translation: he knows Republicans are about to get destroyed at the polls and would rather just skip democracy entirely than face accountability. OF COURSE, when asked about Americans struggling with grocery prices, Trump’s solution was better PR for himself, not actual help—because nothing says “man of the people” like suggesting we cancel elections when they become inconvenient for you. Read the full story.

Yesterday we asked, is ICE becoming Trump's personal gestapo? 100% of you said YES. Not a single person voted no.

Rmeier said: “This is how Hitler started! Wake up America!”

Arlynn said: “It's time the United States put their big boy panties on and got rid of this jackass! We in America deserve better than him!!!”

JMacs put it plainly: “Masked men kidnapping citizens-what more needs to be said?”

Here are some stories the algorithms may be keeping out of your feed.

Trump’s Justice Department is building something unprecedented that should worry every single American—because it further endangers our democracy.

We keep the vast majority of our journalism free—but we reserve our in-depth reporting and analysis for members who financially support us. Get access to the rest of the newsletter by becoming a member today.