Subject: Re: “Very hostile act to the administration”
I'm just pondering a discussion with Bondi that there is no there there, and Trump's name comes up a few more times. In that scenario, an episode or two that we don't know about and more references to Trump's name, with little about anyone else - just how would people react to that?

I would expect they wouldn't react at all. Trump's already got well-known and well-publicized connections to Epstein. There's several photos of them together. Trump's been quoted talking about Epstein, and his youthful taste in women. It's already been established that they were at least moderately acquainted, enough for Trump to make an observation about his dating preferences.

As for the "hostile act," Trump doesn't want the Epstein files to be clogging up the news cycle. He wants the news to talk about all the things he wants to talk about. One of his great political skills is driving the media agenda, and making sure that he's being talked about for the things he wants talked about. He does not want Epstein files headlines. Anyone from the GOP who votes for the discharge petition makes that problem worse for him. Of course he regards that as a "hostile act." He wants the story to disappear. And not necessarily because he's worried about anything new coming out, but because the mere existence of the story is bad for him. It splits his base and undermines his argument that he's a Fighter against the Elite for the Forgotten - because if he's that Fighter, why aren't people in the Epstein Files getting indicted?