There Can Only Be One Reason for Melania Talking Epstein. It’s Not Good

President Donald Trump has apparently decided that while having an intense connection to a notorious sex trafficker is bad enough to make him want to start a war to distract him, it’s not as bad as being viewed as a genocidal maniac.

It seems that he decided to have his wife make an extraordinary statement at the White House today to return the matter to the previous scandal.

At least that was one of the conclusions that could be drawn following the appearance of First Lady Melania Trump, who said: “The lies linking me to Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. I was never friends with Epstein. I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email response to Maxwell cannot be classified as anything more than casual correspondence.”

The email correspondence he refers to is “Dear G!” greeting, included complimentary references to a New York magazine story about “JE” and the appearance of Ghislaine Maxwell in a photograph. Then, answering a question about Maxwell’s recent trip to Palm Beach, Ms. Trump concluded with a suggestion that Maxwell, who is currently serving time in federal prison on sex trafficking charges, call her the next time she is in New York City. It was signed “Love, Melania.”

Needless to say, considering that this exchange is now a matter of public record, it seems far-fetched to suggest that the president’s wife never had an affair with Maxwell. As for her lack of a relationship with Epstein, as soon as she came out, the internet was filled with images of the First Lady looking very friendly with Epstein and Maxwell.

Because there is tons of evidence confirming that he actually had some sort of relationship with both of them.

As a result, the First Lady’s strange intervention raises a few questions. Why someone? The other is why now?

There is speculation that he may have brought up the issue in anticipation of the later stages of a legal matter involving himself. But beyond that, since they can’t exactly seize the White House and use it as a stage for a personal statement without the approval and support of the president’s own staff, a bigger question arises: Why would they agree?

Of course, they knew this would create a media sensation (which it did). We also know that keeping the Epstein story out of the news has long been a priority of the White House.

Indeed, it has been suggested that one of the reasons for the firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi and the temporary replacement of the president’s former attorney, Todd Blanche, was the president’s frustration with Bondi’s failure to quash the story.

However, big news came from the White House today. By choice. (As long as Melania doesn’t stray, which is a welcome possibility, it seems unlikely again due to logistics and the way the event took center stage at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.)

From where? Could the war in Iran, which many think was designed to divert the issue away from Epstein, like the earlier attack on Venezuela, become an even bigger problem for the president? Not only was this a strategic fiasco that left Iran with seemingly greater global influence and potential new sources of revenue, but Trump’s threat to wipe Iranian civilization off the map on Tuesday morning shocked the world’s conscience.

Trump was viewed by the entire world as a monster and madman because of his threat of genocide. Even a hastily arranged, patched-up ceasefire could not undo the damage wrought by Trump’s shocking statement of appalling intent. And it is unlikely to last long enough to revive Trump’s desire to be seen as the master of power diplomacy.

What’s more, Trump couldn’t hold back and offered more threats, along with promises to turn his attention to new “conquests” in a Truth Social post late Wednesday evening.

While it’s unlikely that anyone in the White House will openly say “OK, it’s better to talk about Epstein than act like Hitler” (in part because there seem to be a lot of people in the White House who don’t see “acting like Hitler” as a bad thing), they seem desperate enough to have the First Lady’s appearance change the topic to OK, which everyone involved should know is a news anchor.

(Trump told an MS NOW reporter who caught him on the phone during his “war meeting” that he had “no prior knowledge,” which seems hard to believe.)

Melania’s subsequent call for congressional hearings where Epstein’s victims could be heard must not have gone down well with a president and those around him who are working like crazy to prevent this from happening. So there is much more to this story than meets the eye. And it will be very interesting to both get to the bottom of it and watch the media spend the coming days and weeks trying to debunk the First Lady’s Sergeant Schultz-like claim: “I don’t know anything.”

For now, the president and his team are faced with the option of bringing the Epstein story back to center stage, and there is ample evidence that their real goal is to get people to stop thinking about the president’s disastrous decision to attack Iran and his despicable performance as commander in chief.

Unless, of course, the president was as caught off guard by his wife’s statement as everyone else, and so we have to conclude that the old man is no more aware of or out of control of what’s going on in the White House than anything else right now.