How the Epstein Files Turned MAGA Against Trump

Plus: tariff rollbacks and the affordability debate, Trump considers direct talks with Maduro as unauthorized strikes continue, and a listener asks what it would take to move healthcare out of government hands

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How the Epstein Files Turned MAGA Against Trump

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This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Nick Gillespie are joined by Reason reporter Eric Boehm to unpack President Donald Trump's sudden shift on the Jeffrey Epstein files after trying to block the vote, the GOP pressure campaign behind it, and what the episode suggests about his grip on the party. They also examine Trump's mixed signals on tariffs, including his move to roll back duties he imposed in the first place, and whether this moment reinforces the basic economic arguments critics have made for years. The group also digs into whether Trump's proposed tariff dividend makes any economic sense.

The conversation then turns to rising tensions with Venezuela as unauthorized strikes continue and Trump signals interest in direct talks with Nicolás Maduro. A listener then asks what would need to change in order to push American health care away from government-run insurance and toward a system shaped by private plans.

 

0:00—The Epstein files fracture Trump's coalition

18:12—Tariff rollbacks and stimulus checks

36:17—Listener question on government healthcare

47:33—More unauthorized military strikes in Venezuela

56:54—Weekly cultural recommendations

 

Mentioned in This Podcast

"Trump's Epstein Reversal," by Liz Wolfe

"Jeffrey Epstein: Trump 'Spent Hours At My House' With Victim," by Matthew Petti

"State of U.S. Tariffs: October 30, 2025," by Yale Budget Lab

"Trump's Tariffs Are Likely To Make Toys More Expensive This Christmas Shopping Season," by Eric Boehm

"The Trump Administration Finally Admits That Tariffs Raise Prices," by Eric Boehm

"Tariff Stimulus Checks Are an Unserious Idea," by Eric Boehm

"Wanted: Honesty on Health Care," by Shikha Dalmia

"What Free Market Health Care Would Actually Look Like," by John Osterhoudt

"How Making GLP-1s Available Over the Counter Can Unlock Their Full Potential," by Jeffrey A. Singer

"Presidential Drift: Clinton's Haiti policy has no anchor," by Nick Gillespie

"Don't Send Cubans and Venezuelans Back To Suffer Under Communism," by Billy Binion

"Maduro and His Crony Made Millions While Venezuelan Children Starved," by César Báez

"Britain and Colombia Cut Off U.S. Intelligence Access Over Caribbean Boat Bombings," by Matthew Petti

 

Upcoming Reason Events

Reason Versus debate: Big Tech Does More Good Than Harm, December 10

• Producer: Paul Alexander
• Video Editor: John Osterhoudt

What are we consuming this week?

Peter Suderman

• The Running Man

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Our Country Friends: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart

Nick Gillespie

• Death By Lightning, directed by Mike Makowsky

Eric Boehm

• Travel Light, by Naomi Mitchison

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Comments

[Use the Schwartz]

Roll the tape of Biden inappropriately touching and sniffing young girls.

Oh, and Fuck Joe Biden.

[Chumby]

Fuck Joe Biden

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Fuck Joe Biden

[Liberty_Belle]

Are we trying to equivocate creepy-sniffing to statutory rape now ? Are you really trying to "whatabout" the Epstein list ? Only one of those actions gets you put in jail with Bubba. This is everything wrong with tribalism and political parties; George Washington was right.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

That’s not what’s happening.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

What rape? So far every dem pushed narrative has quickly fallen apart. Dem operatives on newscasts are being very careful with their words. Are you just a gullible retard?

You are a blind tribalist pushing tribal stories.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Read the pages of him showering with his daughter who was possibly molested, her words.

[sarcasmic]

"Biden was worse. That makes whatever Trump did ok."

[Daddyhill]

"...what would need to change in order to push American health care away from government-run insurance and toward a system shaped by private plans."

I can answer that. We would have to go whole hog on the view that some people don't deserve health care. People who haven't recently been able to boost their personal wealth by 1000%, for example, and people whose jobs don't provide health care coverage. We could also conclude that some people don't deserve other kinds of benefits that should be available to everybody.

And we would have to tell the rest of the world that we don't care much about them either. We are exceptional, and we get to make up our own morals.

[Michael Ejercito]

I quote Jack Marshall.

https://ethicsalarms.com/2017/06/20/california-ethics/

The Sacramento Bee pointed out that by replacing current state-run health programs with a single-payer system, the state would still need to come up with an additional $200 billion annually.This year’s state budget in California is about $180 billion. Yes, implementing a single-payer health care system would require doubling California’s current tax burden.

Oh, never mind! The state Senate voted 23 to 14 this month in favor of SB 562, a single-payer proposal that would guarantee universal health care to all Californians. “What we did today was really approve the concept of a single-payer system in California,” declared state Senator Ricardo Lara following the vote.

No, what they did was reaffirm the fact that progressive cant refuses to yield in the face of cold, hard facts, math, reason and common sense. The cheerleading from the Left is mind-numbing. Writes the Nation: “If health care is a right—and it is—the only honest response to the current crisis is the single-payer “Medicare for All” reform that would bring the United States in line with humane and responsible countries worldwide.”

Well, let’s see: health care is NOT a right except in Left-Wing Fantasyland, and all of those “humane and responsible countries” have crushing tax burdens, reduced liberty, economic instability, crushing debt and completely different values, priorities and responsibilities than those of the United States.

Ethics is only ethical when it is practical and practicable in the real world. The ethical response to the fact that single-payer doubles the state budget is to say, “Oh. Well, obviously we can’t do that, then. On to plan B.”

If California can not do it, what makes you think Delaware or Connecticut or Vermont could?

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

I saw this same narrarive at MS now and the NYT. Weird.