Trump’s War on Obama Is Really About the Epstein Files
The former president’s latest treason tirade is less about justice and more about burying the scandal that could engulf him.
Update — August 5, 2025: The Justice Department is now planning on opening a federal grand jury investigation into Obama‑era officials over alleged manipulation of the Trump‑Russia narrative. Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting on a referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, has authorized subpoenas targeting John Brennan, James Clapper, and James Comey.
While the DOJ frames it as a probe into politicized intelligence during the 2016 election, the move folds neatly into Trump’s years‑long campaign against his predecessor. Trump hates that Obama is popular, and he thinks he can use that popularity to benifit himself, but the American public can see through the move. A majority of Americans want the Epstein files to be released, and won’t be distracted by the latest dictatorial move.
Original Reporting – August 4, 2025: Donald Trump’s public accusation that Barack Obama committed treason is not a serious legal effort. It is a calculated diversion. The real story, and the one the former president would prefer you not to follow, is the public demand to release the Epstein files, where Trump’s name is currently being redacted.
The timing is impossible to ignore. As public and private pressure mounts for the US president to releast the Epstein files, Trump has reached for one of his oldest and most reliable tools: the political firestorm. This time, it came in the form of a bizarre Oval Office statement accusing Obama of rigging the 2016 election and committing crimes punishable by death. No credible evidence was offered. None exists.
Trump’s animosity toward Obama is not new. He built much of his early political identity on the racist “birther” conspiracy theory, insisting for years that Obama was not born in the United States. Even after Obama humiliated him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump carried a deep personal resentment that has fueled repeated public attacks. His treason claim is simply the latest in a long history of attempts to delegitimize the first Black president.
This time, Trump doubled down online, promoting an AI-generated video of Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. It was pure propaganda, and it had its intended effect: conservative media lit up, social media drowned in partisan shouting, and the Epstein revelations slipped further down the news cycle.
The playbook is familiar. When the Access Hollywood tape threatened to sink his 2016 campaign, Trump staged a press conference flanked by women accusing Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. When his administration faced fire over family separations at the border, he shifted the headlines by abruptly threatening to revoke press credentials from unfriendly outlets. Distraction is not a side effect of Trump’s scandals; it is the point.
This latest spectacle is especially dangerous. By accusing a former president of treason, Trump normalizes the idea of political prosecutions without evidence, feeding the authoritarian impulse to criminalize opponents. The baseless charges have already fueled a spike in threats against Obama, creating a volatile environment that could spill into real-world violence.
Meanwhile, the Epstein files continue to grow. Testimony, flight logs, and internal correspondence hint at a web of influence that reaches deep into political, corporate, and media elites. For Trump, whose name has appeared in association with Epstein for decades, the danger is obvious. Any renewed focus on those connections is a risk to his political ambitions and personal reputation.
A side-by-side look at the past two weeks makes the distraction plain. The day before Trump’s Oval Office appearance, court documents in the Epstein case were unsealed, revealing communications between Epstein’s inner circle and prominent political donors. The same week, a former Epstein associate agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. Within hours of these headlines breaking, Trump’s treason accusations against Obama dominated the airwaves.
The press must decide whether to play along. Every minute spent debating a nonexistent Obama treason case is a minute not spent investigating the people and institutions that enabled Epstein’s crimes. That is exactly the trade Trump is counting on the media to make.
This isn’t just another Trump controversy. It is a case study in how manufactured outrage can smother genuine accountability. And until the focus returns to the Epstein files, the truth remains buried under the noise.