Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Donald Trump is wagging the dog. To “wag the dog” means to make something secondary control something more important, as if the dog’s tail were controlling the dog. Politically, it means the deliberate creation of a distraction. The phrase originally described initiating a war to divert attention from a presidential scandal and was popularized in the 1997 movie Wag the Dog in which a spin doctor (Robert De Niro) fabricates a war to cover up a presidential sex scandal.

Donald Trump and his handlers have concocted a new version of this strategy. Trump’s Wag the Dog 2.0 controls the news cycle by continually shifting the presidential focus. There is no need for Trump to start a fake war to distract the public: a trip to Asia, a meeting with Xi Jinping, threats of nuclear tests, changes in tariffs, East Wing renovations, redoing the Lincoln bathroom, floating rumors about a third term, even a Halloween party – all serve to grab the headlines.

Trump is energetically wagging the dog, leaving major issues off the radar.

Among those issues lacking sustained media attention is the President’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Epstein file remains the elephant in Trump’s Oval Office. While King Charles stripped his brother Andrew of all royal titles, journalists continue to fail to fully connect the dots between Trump and Epstein. As Carla Bleiker asked on the German broadcaster DW; “Epstein scandal: Consequences for Andrew ― what about........

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