Pinsker’s Law of PR #103: It’s the audience’s decision, not the performer’s. (Sorry, but them’s the rules.)
There’s a very simple reason why the Jeffrey Epstein story didn’t go away, hasn’t gone away, and isn’t going to go away: Audiences still want to hear it.
As long as it drives clicks and views, it’s going to stay.
And if an ex-Fox News blowhard can spike his profile and enhance his visibility by exploiting the Epstein uproar, then he’ll continue to manufacture Epstein content by the barrelful. (For all their talk of being “America First,” it’s mostly their “Wallet First,” isn’t it?) The financial incentive is too powerful; even a searing, biting Truth Social post won’t shame them into abandoning it.
It’s Law #103: The audience decides what they want to hear. Not the performer.
Two days ago, we discussed President Trump’s three tactical PR options to push the Epstein story off the front page and into the rearview mirror:
- Ignore the controversy, dismiss it as a nothingburger, and march forward with the MAGA agenda
- Deal with it head-on in a national speech, where he resets the narrative
- Outsource the Epstein “damage control” to trusted subordinates, i.e. folks like Dan Bongino, on platforms relevant to the Epstein Addicts (“The Joe Rogan Experience”)
Two days later, it’s crystal clear that Trump has committed to option #1. And, in typical Trump fashion, when he committed, he committed 100% — blasting the Epstein true-believers as “weaklings,” telling the world point-blank, “I don’t want their support anymore!”
And it’s something PJ Media readers certainly saw coming. As we noted:
Until the Democrats take over the House and subject the White House to constant lawsuits, hearings, and subpoenas, President Trump will have a free hand to set the national agenda. It’s entirely within his power to ignore the Epstein controversy, “flood the zone” with new storylines, and eventually, the oft-elusive Epstein files will be pushed off the front page.
Might take more than a day. Might take more than a week. But eventually, we’d get there.
This is probably Trump’s preference. He understands that the media’s bandwidth is limited; “flooding the zone” has worked far more than it’s failed. [emphasis added]
When a brand gets in trouble, you can’t delete the Internet; those bad news stories never really go away. Like Epstein, their “ghosts” still linger. That’s why most PR pros do their own version of “flooding the zone” to protect a client: It’s beyond our power to erase that damaging news story, but by generating a slew of new, highly-ranked content, maybe we can push it off Google page one and down to Google page five or six — and oh, by the way, news stories (especially in top-tier publications) tend to be ranked highly by search engines. This is how reputation management works in the digital age.
So, it’s not necessarily a bad tactic. It’s just the wrong tactic for this problem.
Most Republicans aren’t fixated on Epstein. Most Republicans have other priorities: the economy, immigration, national security, affordability, inflation, housing, taxation, the Supreme Court. Most Americans view Jeffrey Epstein as a tabloidesque distraction and wish he’d go away. But in a closely divided country, a disaffected, alienated minority of Republicans will be enough to trigger a Blue Tsunami during the midterms.
Remember: In Trump’s first term, Republicans lost 40 seats in the House, giving Nancy Pelosi the Speakership. Which is why the second half of Trump’s first term was wasted in show trials, partisan hearings, bogus impeachment attempts, lawfare, and nonstop subpoenas.
If the current trendlines continue, that’s where we’re heading again.
And it won’t be the Democrats who kneecap our chances. Sure, they’ll do everything they can to cheerlead internal GOP divisions, but a byproduct of our uber-partisan age is that MAGA-minded voters don’t really pay attention to Democratic politicians anymore. Let’s be honest: Nobody in MAGA is gonna abandon Trump because Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer told ’em to.
But after a few hundred MORE videos, posts, and “interview exclusives” from Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Candace Owens, Alex Jones, and the rest of that crowd, there’s going to be a large enough percentage of MAGA-minded voters who really, truly believe the Epstein conspiracy theories.
Hook, line, and sinker.
In recent weeks, most of their ire has been centered on Attorney General Pam Bondi. But November 2026 is a long way off: Eventually, they’ll turn on Trump.
They’ll have to.
Otherwise, their conspiracy theory about a high-level political cover-up wouldn’t make sense. To keep this (lucrative) Epstein story going, they’ll be incentivized to add new wrinkles and incrementally up the ante.
After all, if you keep telling your audience the same thing, they’ll get bored and leave.
Which brings us back to PR Law #103: It’s the audience’s decision, not the performer’s. The audience decides what they want to watch. And most of the time, a performer’s path of least resistance is to bend their knee and simply give it to ’em.
You make far more money catering to audience expectations than defying them.
That’s the vise the MAGA movement is caught in: Trump wants to move on, but too many MAGA-aligned media personalities are incentivized to continue. The end result will be a splintered movement.
Related: Why Hasn’t Steve Bannon Released HIS Epstein Tapes?
But we still have time to turn this around.
President Trump must switch PR tactics ASAP. And since nobody has the gravitas, credibility, or emotional connection to the MAGA audience that he does, his best option is still #2: Deal with it head-on in a national speech.
And change the narrative BEFORE the narrative turns on Trump.
If the truth is that the Epstein file was so badly mishandled by the Biden administration, it’s chock-full of dubious, politically-skewed nonsense, tell the American people. If it’s a story about a rich creep with high-level connections exploiting the legal system, explain it to us. And if the more sensational claims are true — stuff like intelligence agencies, blackmail schemes, and an actual client list of pedophiles — just say so.
We can handle it.
Stonewalling, however, is the one tactic that won’t work. It’ll produce a “Streisand effect” that keeps this conspiracy going. For a better explanation, please consult this six-second “Simpsons” clip:
Police Chief Wiggum: You know you’re not supposed to go in there! What IS your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?!
It’s the mystery and all the “whodunnit” questions that gives the Epstein saga such long legs. Trump should reset the narrative as only he can, and do the one thing only he has the power to do: At long last, make the Epstein story… boring.
Only then will Epstein be dead for good.
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