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This New York Times article (based on an excerpt from the forthcoming book Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan) describes how the Trump White House was thrown into turmoil over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files in 2025.
Key points:
Senior officials, including JD Vance, held emergency meetings in the White House Situation Room to deal with growing anger from Trump's supporters over the Epstein files. Many supporters believed the administration had promised transparency but then failed to deliver it.
According to the book, President Donald Trump wanted the Epstein issue to disappear from the headlines and became frustrated whenever it was raised.
Vance reportedly argued for releasing as much information as possible. One idea discussed was having Ghislaine Maxwell give an interview to Tucker Carlson in which she would publicly deny that Trump had any involvement in Epstein's crimes. The proposal was controversial and never happened.
The article also describes bitter infighting between senior Justice Department and FBI officials over how the files were handled, with accusations that the administration had overpromised what would be found in the documents.
Trump and his allies maintain that the released files do not show wrongdoing by him and say he has been unfairly targeted by political opponents. The White House disputed parts of the book's account.
The broader theme of the article is less about Epstein himself and more about the political damage the issue caused inside Trump's administration: a clash between supporters demanding full disclosure and officials trying to manage the fallout from what was, for many voters, an unfulfilled promise of transparency.