Trump’s Late-Night Fury Over Epstein Files Exposes Strain in Second Term

**By Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Weisman**
The New York Times
November 21, 2025

WASHINGTON — President Trump, unable to sleep and fuming over the impending release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files, unleashed a barrage of angry social media posts and phone calls to aides early Friday morning, according to three people familiar with the episode, in a display that has deepened concerns among Republicans about the stability of his second term.

The outburst, which began around 3 a.m. at the White House residence and continued into the dawn hours, centered on the president’s frustration with the bipartisan bill he signed on Wednesday compelling the Justice Department to disclose thousands of pages related to the financier and convicted sex offender. Mr. Trump had resisted the measure for months, only to abruptly endorse it after a congressional discharge petition threatened to force a vote without his input. Now, with a 30-day clock ticking toward the files’ release, he has taken to framing the episode as a Democratic “hoax” designed to distract from his administration’s achievements.

“I signed it because I’m the most transparent president in history — but the radical left is using it to attack ME, when it’s THEIR dirty secrets that will come out,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of Truth Social posts at 3:47 a.m., tagging several Democratic lawmakers and accusing them of deeper ties to Epstein than his own. The posts, which included all-caps rants about “fake news media” and late-night comedians, were deleted and reposted twice, a sign of the president’s agitation, one of the people said.

By 5:15 a.m., Mr. Trump had placed calls to his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, demanding updates on the Justice Department’s review of the files and berating them for not moving faster to “expose the Clintons and the Bidens first,” according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Ms. Bondi, who has already launched a parallel investigation into Epstein’s alleged Democratic connections at Mr. Trump’s behest, assured him that redactions would protect “innocent parties” — a category that, in his telling, excludes his political rivals.

The episode underscores the political peril of the Epstein saga for Mr. Trump, whose past social ties to the financier — including flights on Epstein’s plane and attendance at parties at Mar-a-Lago — have resurfaced amid the files’ disclosure. Newly released emails from Epstein’s estate, made public by the House Oversight Committee this week, reference Mr. Trump dozens of times, often in unflattering terms, including one 2011 message to Ghislaine Maxwell describing him as the “dog that hasn’t barked” after spending “hours at my house” with an alleged victim. No credible allegations of wrongdoing by Mr. Trump have emerged, but the documents have fueled a torrent of mockery from late-night hosts and social media, amplifying his sense of siege.

“Behind closed doors, it’s chaos,” said one Republican strategist close to the White House, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “He’s up all night obsessing over this, dictating posts that make it worse. The base loves the fight, but moderates are exhausted — and with midterms looming, this could turn into a real liability.”

The president’s rampage spilled into public view during a morning interview on Fox & Friends, where he lashed out at reporters for focusing on Epstein rather than what he called his “incredible victories” on the economy and border security. “The media is in on it — Kimmel, Colbert, all of them — they’re puppets for the deep state,” Mr. Trump said, referencing recent monologues that have lampooned his reversal on the bill. When pressed on the files’ contents, he pivoted: “You’ll see — it’s going to blow up the Democrats. Bill Clinton, 50 times on the plane. Me? Zero problems.”

Publicly, the White House has projected calm. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement late Thursday framing the signing as “a bold step for accountability,” while emphasizing the administration’s probe into Epstein’s “Democrat enablers.” But privately, aides have been scrambling to contain the fallout. Two officials said Mr. Trump spent much of Thursday evening in the Situation Room, reviewing unredacted excerpts and growing increasingly incensed at references to his name — even benign ones, like a 2003 birthday poem Epstein claimed Mr. Trump sent him, which the president has denied authoring.

Democrats, sensing vulnerability, have seized the moment. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, appearing on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” described watching Mr. Trump’s “extraordinary meltdown in real time” over the bill, likening it to his reactions during the Russia investigation. “This isn’t just distraction — it’s deflection from a presidency unraveling under its own weight,” Mr. Jeffries said. Even some Republicans have expressed unease; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who broke with Mr. Trump over the bill, tweeted Thursday that the administration’s handling was its “real test,” drawing a swift rebuke from the president’s allies.

The Epstein files, long a source of conspiracy theories on both sides, now pose a tangible threat to Mr. Trump’s narrative of invincibility. Polling from Quinnipiac released Friday shows his approval rating dipping to 42 percent — the lowest of his second term — with independents citing “unpredictability” as a top concern. As the December deadline approaches, Justice Department officials are racing to balance transparency with national security carve-outs, but Mr. Trump’s insistence on framing the release as a weapon against Democrats risks prolonging the spectacle.

For a president who thrives on confrontation, the insomnia-fueled fury may be energizing. But as one longtime adviser put it: “He can’t rage his way out of a paper trail.” In the quiet hours before dawn, with the White House still and the files looming, that truth may be harder to escape than any hoax.

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