Replies to post #543019 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Good point about opioids being a bigger problem (a problem Trump once said would be a priority) that wouldn't bother Trump in his distractive efforts to get people's heads out of the domestic scene, and to satisfy his lust - his need - to project the power he's gained through hijacking the presidency. Wonder if cocaine is still as popular with Wall Street traders as it was years ago. Back to yours...

FBI Informant, My Ass
Speaker Johnson’s absurd claim that Trump was one of the good guys trying to take Epstein down highlights Trump’s desperation.

JAY KUO
SEP 08, 2025

There’s a popular meme going around, and it nails the absurdity of the evolving Trump/Epstein narrative coming out of the GOP and the White House.

[Insert: Wish substack techs would adjust their code, whatever, so we could reproduce
images from there as we can from other sites. To bad to see them gotta go inside]

That final “full clown” line comes from last Thursday, when Speaker Mike Johnson dropped a doozy by claiming to a reporter that Trump was an FBI informant.

No really, he did.

To get a grasp on what is going on, we need to go back through a bit of Trump/Epstein history I covered in an earlier piece and mark some dates. From there we can put together a plausible reason Johnson might have floated this patently absurd idea that Trump was an “FBI informant.”

But first, let’s review what Johnson said, and how he’s since walked it back.

Trump was “an FBI information” trying “to take this stuff down.” Yeah, right.

Speaker Johnson made the claim that Trump was an FBI informant within the context of Johnson attempting to sane-wash Trump’s prior claims that the Epstein files were a Democratic hoax.

“I’ve talked to him about this many times, many times. He is horrified. It’s been misrepresented. What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,” Johnson said.

Never mind that Trump claimed in writing in several online posts that the the Epstein files were a Democratic hoax perpetrated by President Obama, Hillary Clinton and FBI Director Comey.

IMAGE

But wait, Johnson explained, “He is not saying what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil, and he believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago.”

Only that last bit is not true at all either, according to club records. And it doesn’t even align with the reason Trump gave for their falling out. Per The Daily Beast,

The president told reporters that he cut ties with Epstein after the pedophile “stole” female workers from his exclusive Florida members club

The timeline of events undermines this claim, because Epstein was still a member of Mar-a-Lago as of 2007:

[T]he revelation that Epstein was allegedly still a member of the club seven years after Epstein poached Virginia Giuffre from the spa at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 raises questions over Trump’s version of events.

As for the idea that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago right after learning of “the rumor” about him, recall that Trump spoke to a reporter from The New Yorker in 2002, telling him in a booming voice over the speakerphone, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” (Emphasis added.)

Trump had certainly “heard the rumor”—but he praised Epstein for it rather than distance himself.

Johnson then continued his defense of Trump, claiming next that he “was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”

Record scratch moment. What in the world?

Speaker Johnson had been chattering nonstop, indicating a high level of anxiety and stress around the subject of Epstein. I had to listen to the clip several times because I couldn’t believe he’d actually said those words.

in which Mike Johnson claims that Donald Trump was an FBI informant to take down Epstein

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-05T22:23:11.474Z

According to five Trump administration officials and others close to the president, Johnson’s “informant” claim on Thursday sparked widespread confusion within the ranks of Trump’s government, with several senior officials blindsided or just completely perplexed by what the Trump-aligned House speaker could have possibly meant.

For some in the administration, the confusion spilled over into Saturday, with some officials still unsure about whether Johnson was citing some explosive, unheard-of insider information, or if he misspoke or was freelancing extemporaneously.

Over the weekend, Johnson walked back his claim, with his office releasing a milquetoast statement:

Continued - https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/fbi-informant-my-ass

Trump and his people's bullshit results in so much 'walking back' it's a bit surprising they aren't all walking backwards before now.