President Donald Trump unexpectedly tempered his usual scorched-earth tone to adopt a rare note of restraint toward longtime adversaries Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. The shift came at a charged moment, just as the Clintons were bracing for anticipated congressional testimony tied to the Epstein files.
The pivot was especially striking given Trump’s posture in recent months when he relentlessly tried to tether Bill Clinton to the Epstein scandal, repeatedly reviving claims about Clinton’s alleged visits to Epstein’s island and using the issue as a political cudgel — making the sudden tonal shift impossible to miss.
More surprisingly, over the past year it’s been revealed that Trump’s name is mentioned in the released portion of the file more than 4,000 times, according to news reports.
Epstein, who died in jail in 2019, and Trump were close buddies for 20 years before their relationship ended in the mid-2000s, but Trump has incredibly and repeatedly denied knowing anything about Epstein’s criminal activity and has said he’s never been to Epstein’s famous party island.
“I think it’s a shame to be honest. I always liked him. Her, she’s a very capable woman who’s better in debating than some of the other people. I will tell you that she was smarter, smart woman,” a disingenuous Trump said in the Oval Office on Feb. 3 in response to a reporter’s question about the upcoming deposition.
“I hate to see it in many ways. I hate to see it, but, you know, then I look at me, they went after me like, you know, they wanted me to go to jail for the rest of my life. Then it turned out I was innocent, very innocent,” he falsely insisted.
Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in 2024 for falsifying business records. He was also found liable in civilian court of sexually assaulting author E. Jean Carroll during an incident in the 1990s.
Social media erupted over Trump’s comments on the Clintons, especially Hillary.
“He’s freaking out if he’s talking nice about a lady that he’s wanted in jail for practically his entire political career,” a Threads user pointed out.
Another agreed, “They are going to take him down.”
And this gleeful comment, “They’re coming for you Orange boy,” with three laughing emojis, above a post on X by Hillary Clinton.
“He thinks he can show love to the Clintons and get out of this. Lmao,” another mocked.
The following day, Trump doubled down on his sudden praise of the Clintons, telling NBC host Tom Llamas that he was “bothered” by people going after Bill Clinton and his wife.
But with just two blistering posts, the former first lady knocked Trump back on his heels and set the stage for a showdown that could make him regret every time he threw her husband under the bus — a reminder that a couple days of forced niceties won’t undo years of bad blood.
“For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith. We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction,” Clinton stated in one X post on Thursday, Feb. 5.
In her second post, Clinton called the upcoming deposition “games” and took direct aim at House Oversight Committee chair and Tennessee Republican James Comer.
“So let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s have it—in public. You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there,” she promised.
Clinton’s first post was viewed more than 1.6 million times and counting and reposted almost 7,000 times.
“Hillary said put it on the floor!!!!” an Instagram user proclaimed.
“Sooo when the current president gonna be held in contempt,” another wondered.
Democrats also signaled that the gloves are officially off, arguing Republicans have now set a precedent for using congressional subpoenas to drag former presidents, first ladies, and family members before Congress under threat of criminal penalties — a line they warn the GOP will soon regret crossing. “We are absolutely going to have Donald Trump testify under oath” when Democrats regain power, Rep. Ted Lieu said, making clear the Epstein trail is not being dropped.
The Department of Justice released millions of Epstein-related documents on Friday, Jan. 30, redacting plenty of alleged abuser names and correspondences with the convicted sex trafficker, but leaving victims’ names and testimony unredacted in many cases.
The latest release comes more than a month after Dec. 19, the deadline in a new law mandating the Justice Department release all the Epstein-related documents its collected over the years. And there’s still more, according to those monitoring the release.
The names of those revealed so far in the Epstein files in addition to Trump and Bill Clinton are like a who’s who of the word’s wealthiest men, including billionaires Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Trump’s current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and even the former president of Harvard University Larry Summers.
And that’s not even including European government officials, members of several royal families, an associate of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
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