Trump’s Christmas Curse: The Truth Is Catching Up

Earlier this morning, I was sitting in a mall parking lot with my daughters, waiting for the rain to ease up before we dashed inside to finish our Christmas shopping. That’s when my 15-year-old turned to me and said, “They released another batch of Epstein files.” She told me all the headlines were about Trump. I asked her what they said, and she shrugged. “I saw his name and closed the tab. I do not want to see any of that.” And just like that, she summed up what so many of us are feeling. She’s 15, but she sees it clearly. Why should she, or any of us, keep having our days wrecked by the President of the United States? Why should we have to brace ourselves every time his name comes up, knowing it’s likely connected to cruelty, corruption, or scandal? And maybe the better question is: why are so many people not just tolerating his connection to these horrific crimes, but defending him?

When I got home, I sat down and tried to make sense of what we were seeing because the details are horrifying. Buried in the files were flight logs showing that Donald Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet at least eight times between 1993 and 1996. And it directly contradicts years of Trump’s own public denials. As recently as January 2024, he posted on Truth Social, “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.” But the logs don’t lie. He was on the plane. Repeatedly.

Survivors have been telling us for years. So none of this is surprising. What it is, though, is documented proof that Donald Trump has never believed the law applies to him. That if he repeats a lie enough times, and with enough volume, his followers will swallow it whole, no matter how many people come forward to confirm that it’s false. For years, he insisted he was never on the plane. Now we have a government document that flat-out exposes the lie.

And beyond Trump himself, we’re seeing the deeper rot that’s been festering beneath the surface, a web of powerful men, enabled by silence and wealth. These files are filled with so much filth, I had to step away more than once just to catch my breath. There’s a point where it becomes too much to even take in, and I had to ask myself: what’s worth sharing? What will help people understand just how widespread and interconnected this really is without overwhelming them? Because what we’re seeing isn’t a collection of isolated monsters. These aren’t one-off cases. These are coordinated patterns. These are predators working together or at least reveling in each other’s crimes.

One of the documents released today makes all of this feel even darker. It includes what appears to be a handwritten letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar, the now-convicted sexual predator who spent years abusing girls and young women while serving as the team doctor for the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team. This letter is stomach-turning. And this afternoon, the DOJ claimed it was fake. They said the FBI confirmed it didn’t come from Epstein’s prison mail. But here’s what matters: the DOJ and the FBI are both operating under Trump. They’re not independent agencies anymore. When the president himself is implicated, you have to ask: can anything they say be taken at face value?

The letter appears to be dated August 2019. In it, Epstein tells Nassar that by the time he receives the card, he will know that Epstein has “taken the ‘short route’ home”, which many are interpreting as a reference to Epstein’s own death by suicide in his prison cell on August 10 of that same month. But what comes next is what truly sickened me. “Good luck!” he writes. “We shared one thing … our love & caring for young ladies and the hope they reach their full potential.” Then he adds, “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by, he loved to ‘grab snatch,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system.” He ends the letter with, “Life is unfair. Yours, J. Epstein.”

This wasn’t just two convicted predators having a lighthearted conversation. They were pulling the president of the United States into the frame. They were lamenting over the unfair reality that all three of them felt that they had committed the same crimes, while two of them were locked away in prison, and the third was the most powerful man on the planet.

And when you look at what else is in today’s release, the picture gets even darker. Until now, the public narrative around Epstein has centered on just two people: Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. But these documents say otherwise. They claim there are at least ten co-conspirators. And now Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is demanding answers about why their identities are still being kept secret. Who are the other eight people? If this release is supposed to be about transparency, then where are the names? Why is the Department of Justice still protecting anyone?

And when I sit with that question, my mind goes to Watergate. How officials justified their decisions “for the good of the country.” How they thought burying the truth would preserve public trust, or keep the peace. But it never works. So is that what’s happening now? Is this another case of powerful people deciding that we “can’t handle the truth”? Or are we watching something even worse, a coordinated effort to protect the guilty? We must demand to know who else is involved in the crime and the cover-up.

And this might be the most horrific thing I came across in the files today, number EFTA00025010. There’s an allegation buried in a tip submitted to the FBI in August of 2020. It came from a woman who says that in 1984, when she was just 13 years old, she was trafficked. She says she became pregnant during that time. And then it says the following: “He participated regularly in paying money to force me to (REDACTED) with him, and he was present when my uncle murdered my newborn child and disposed of the body in Lake Michigan.” And then under witness information, it lists “First Name: Donald, Last Name: Trump”. That is what the FBI case report says. And after everything we’ve already seen, everything we already know, this one left me stunned. We’ve heard some of the most unspeakable things connected to Epstein and the men who surrounded him. But this… this left me bewildered. There are no words strong enough for what this would mean if even one part of it is true.

And how is anyone still denying Trump’s potential connection to these atrocities, knowing full well this is a man who was already found liable for sexual assault in the E. Jean Carroll case? He has used disgusting, objectifying language about women for decades. And I’m not even talking about legal standards here. I’m talking about moral judgment. About basic credibility. This was Jeffrey Epstein’s closest friend for years. Even if you stripped away every other fact, that one remains. And yet the very people who spent years shouting about saving the children and protecting women are still defending him. There’s a part of me that wants to ask how they still believe this. But I already know the answer. Because they want to. Because facing the truth would mean admitting they were wrong. And if they admit they were wrong about him, they’d have to admit they were wrong about everything else. Today’s release wasn’t just about one man. It was about a wider picture finally coming into focus.

Of course, the rest of the news didn’t stop just because the Epstein files were released. There were other major developments today, too. A New York Times investigation revealed that nearly 200 of Trump’s major donors have received something in return: federal contracts, pardons, ambassador roles, special treatment in regulations, or direct policy changes. Fossil fuel companies that backed Trump’s campaign have already received tens of billions in tax breaks and incentives. Supporting Trump literally pays. This is open corruption now.

And then, somehow making the day even more surreal, Trump announced that Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is now his special envoy to Greenland. Trump said, “We have to have it,” as if Greenland were something he could just take. Denmark and Greenland quickly condemned the announcement. Greenland’s prime minister called the idea disrespectful. This isn’t even the first time Trump has floated annexing Greenland, but appointing a MAGA governor to push the idea forward takes it to another level of absurdity.

Meanwhile, the conservative movement is splitting from within. Over 30 staff members have resigned from The Heritage Foundation after its president, Kevin Roberts, defended Tucker Carlson’s interview with white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Nearly the entire legal and economic policy team quit and moved to Mike Pence’s nonprofit, Advancing American Freedom, which just raised $13 million to rebuild what they call the traditional conservative base. And Pence’s camp is publicly rejecting Heritage’s turn toward MAGA-style populism. This is the beginning of a full-blown civil war on the right.

We also saw the Supreme Court deal Trump another legal defeat today. The Court rejected his request to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois. Trump had claimed he needed them to protect federal immigration agents in Chicago, but the Court ruled 6–3 that he didn’t have the legal authority. The ruling reinforced the 10th Amendment, which protects states’ rights, and showed that even Trump’s own appointees are starting to draw a line. Only Justices Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch sided with Trump; everyone else said no. This is a major loss for Trump and a reminder that not all the checks and balances are gone.

And in yet another blow, we learned today that consumer confidence has taken a nosedive. The Conference Board’s index dropped sharply in December. The Present Situation Index fell by almost 10 points. The Expectations Index stayed below 80 for the 11th month in a row, which economists say is a warning sign for a possible recession. More Americans said jobs are getting harder to find. More expect their incomes to drop. And fewer are planning big purchases like cars or appliances.

When I take a step back and look at the full picture, I can see something shifting. Not in a straight line, not in some clean, triumphant arc, but in the way real change always happens: with ups and downs, forward surges and setbacks. And today, even through the horror of these files, I saw more signs than I’ve seen in a long time that the tide is beginning to turn. That momentum is building. But I also know this: even if tomorrow brings more darkness, we are slowly stacking up enough of these days, days where the truth leaks out, where the courts push back, where people see what they weren’t ready to see before, that when we zoom out, the pattern becomes clearer.

This isn’t over. But they’re not getting away with as much. They’re not hiding as well. And the people he surrounds himself with? They aren’t the smartest or the strongest. They’re not who anyone would choose if they were trying to build something that lasts. And that may be our biggest advantage. Because the more they stumble, the closer they are to collapse, and the better positioned we are to rebuild something stronger in its place.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, chances are we see things the same way. You can help me reach more people and keep this work going by subscribing to my Substack; there’s a free option, or you can become a paid subscriber for less than $5 a month. Your support allows me to cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in our country.