The Epstein files are a who’s who of Trump’s inner circle

 

 

"With puffy eyes and a bruised right hand hidden under his left, Donald Trump sat hunched over on his leather chair behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Behind him stood Pam Bondi, Dr. Oz, RFK Jr., and a few others from his inner circle of elite enablers, all poised to give a false sense of power, control, and normalcy. Instead, it just showed how dazed and detached he was. At one point, he turned and locked eyes with Dr. Oz, with a gaze that looked like the lights had just gone out, as if something inside him had snapped and he was experiencing a cognitive or physical medical crisis. The woman next to Oz leaned in and smiled at him, not kindly but patronizingly, the way you smile at a child who was lost and didn’t know where they were, as they desperately scanned for a safe person to help them.

At that moment, something had shifted. Trump gave what looked like a subtle cue, maybe it was a motion or just the lost look in his eyes, but his team took it seriously and jumped into action. Trump mumbled something incoherent, followed by, “Thank you, please,” in a strange, flat tone. And suddenly, the press was being ushered out of the room at a speed we haven’t seen before. He didn’t take a single question, which is rare for him. Everyone moved fast, ushering out the press. As they grabbed their equipment in a scramble, Trump just sat there staring into space. His eyes sank back; he was mouth-breathing and nothing else. The others stood behind him, silent and stiff, awkward and unsure of what to do."

more in the stack by Heather Delaney Reese 

The Epstein files are a who’s who of Trump’s inner circle