When Donald Trump launched a seemingly random war against Iran, there was a whiff of suspicion of a Wag the Dog ploy to divert attention from how badly the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was going.
So when Trump’s wife Melania made a mysterious appearance at the White House on Thursday to put Epstein front and centre again, was it an elaborate ruse to divert attention from how badly the Iran war is going?
Wearing a grey pantsuit, the first lady emerged from the Blue Room and walked to a lectern flanked by US flags in the grand foyer, surrounded by chandeliers, marble pillars and shiny chequered floor.
As cameras clicked away, Melania, full of cold fury, said in her now familiar Slovenian accent: “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”
To which America responded: “What lies? Maybe we read something somewhere a few months ago but we have more pressing concerns right now.”
But Melania had come to say her piece. “The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”
There was then a small, nervy linguistic slip: “I never been friends with Epstein.”
Staring down at her prepared remarks, the first lady acknowledged that she and Trump went to the same parties as Epstein and moved in the same social circles but she “never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell”.
In an apparent reference to a 2002 email to Maxwell, in which a woman called “Melania” praised a profile of Epstein in New York magazine and signed off “Love”, Melania insisted there had only been casual correspondence and that her response was trivial.
“I am not Epstein’s victim,” she went on. “Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband by chance at a New York City party in 1998.”
But the longer Melania went on, the more this sounded like a “the lady doth protest too much” prebuttal of allegations that may be about to break in the media.
“Be cautious about what you believe,” she urged, providing a long list of all things she was not and all the things she had never done, from witnessing Epstein’s crimes to being named in court documents to flying on his plane.
It was a barrage of denials that one might have expected from former first lady Hillary Clinton facing an ambush by Republican conspiracy theorists. But no one has been storming the White House demanding that Melania own up to her secret role in the Epstein class.
However, somebody, somewhere, is stirring up trouble, she claimed. “The false smears about me from mean-spirited and politically motivated individuals and entities looking to cause damage to my good name to gain financially and climb politically, must stop.”
Then came a final twist as Melania urged Congress to give Epstein survivors a public hearing to help uncover the truth. “Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony.”
Her plea was immediately endorsed by Democrat Ro Khanna and Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace. A high-profile Capitol Hill hearing with Epstein survivors reminding everyone how the Trump administration botched the release of the files is the last thing that Trump or Republicans need.
Melania turned on her heel and walked back to the Blue Room, ignoring shouted questions, and the doors closed after her. What did it all mean? Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, speculated on X: “Ok so who’s about to break the Melania/Epstein story she just tried to get ahead of?”
But the plot may be even thicker. Jacqueline Alemany, a reporter for the MS Now network, tweeted that she called Trump who said he did not “know anything about” Melania’s statement prior to her appearance. He may be less than pleased that his wife just put one of his biggest political liabilities back on the agenda a week after he fired Pam Bondi as attorney general.
What is Melania’s game? Is she a secret member of the resistance after all, driven to act now by Trump’s threat to wipe out Iranian civilisation and growing fears that he is descending into madness? Is there a smoking gun in the Epstein files that could yet bring him down? It would all make a great Amazon documentary.