The Anti-Pope

If you think today’s entry is about the squabbles between the White House and Pope Leo XIV, you are half right. To paraphrase Chief Justice John Roberts’ recent assessment of the relationship between modernity and the founding documents, the Pope may be new but the White House remains the same. In this case, “Pope” refers to Olivia Pope, the protagonist in Shonda Rhimes’ television series, “Scandal (2012-18).” Wikipedia describes Pope, portrayed by Kerri Washington, as “…Washington D.C.’s top crisis manager and fixer.” Among her clients is President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) who, in season one, is rumored to be the father of former White House staffer Amanda Tanner’s baby.

In an April 4, 2012 review, New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley speculates that Pope is loosely based on George H. W. Bush’s deputy press secretary Judy Smith. Because of her close association with POTUS, some “Scandal” fans viewed Pope as a slightly more ethical, female incarnation of Donald Trump’s confidante and fixer Michael Cohen. Which brings me back to the title of today’s post. Based on his ever-declining approval numbers, no one needs an Olivia Pope more than the current occupant of the Oval Office. The fact no one is serving that role became most evident yesterday with the firing of attorney general Pam Bondi. Though it is unclear who is advising Trump how to clean up the public relations nightmares driving his drop in the polls, it is apparent that individual is no Olivia Pope.

Consider the following timeline.

• A month into Trump 2.0, February 21, 2025 to be exact, Bondi announces she had a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients on her desk awaiting review.
• Six days later Bondi distributes binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to 15 right-wing media outlets and influencers. The binders consist largely of previously available public information.
• In response to this attempt at non-transparent transparency, Bondi sends a letter to FBI director Kash Patel ordering him to deliver “the full and complete files to my office by 8:00 am tomorrow, February 28,” and promises that “everything is going to come out to the public.”
• In May 2025, Bondi and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche inform Trump that his name appears throughout the Epstein files.
• On June 22, 2025, Trump orders “Operation Midnight Hammer,” after which he claims the bombing attack has “obliterated” Iran’s capacity to build a nuclear weapon. I respond by posting a ChatGPT generated image on Facebook after Iran bombing replaces Epstein files as the top news story.

• A July 2025 FBI memo, approved by Bondi, claims there is NO clients list and based on a “systematic review…we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography.”
• On July 15, congressmen Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduces HR 4405, the “Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
• In November 2025, despite House Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to prevent a vote on the bill, including a 54-day recess, Khanna and Charles Massie (R-MO) obtain the required 218 signatures on the discharge petition needed to bring the proposal to the House floor for a vote.
• On November 18, the House passes HR 4405 by a vote of 427-1. The following day the Senate passes the bill by unanimous consent. HR 4405 becomes law that same day after being signed by Trump.
• On December 19, 2025 the Department of Justice (DOJ) fails to meet the requirement under HR 4405 to release all materials in its possession pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days. A heavily redacted tranche of documents were viewed as non-responsive to the Transparency Act language.
• Subsequent release of additional documents on December 23, 2025 and January 30, 2026 raised additional questions about a potential DOJ cover-up.
• On February 28, the United States and Israel jointly attack Iran to (again?) obliterate its nuclear weapons capability.
• On March 3, DOJ restores 50,000 documents that had been deleted from the Epstein files database including FBI interviews with an Epstein survivor who claimed Trump sexually assaulted her when she was 13-years-old.
• On March 17, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Bondi to appear before the panel on April 14 to review “…the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings and ways for the federal government to effectively combat them.”
• On April 1, NASA successfully launches the first manned space flight to the moon since 1972.
• That same evening Trump provides an update on the war with Iran in a nationally televised address.
• The next morning, the news is dominated with reports on the moon launch and Trump’s rambling speech which again provided conflicting rationales for initiating the war. No one on broadcast media or in any major newspaper raises the possibility the Iran “excursion” might be a distraction from the March disclosures in the restored Epstein documents.
• On April 2, 2026, Trump fires Pam Bondi. Among the reported reasons for her termination was (drum roll) her handling of the Epstein files.

If Trump had hired Olivia Pope to clean up his association with Jeffrey Epstein and the fallout from release of the files, she would have advised the administration to do four things. #1: Get out in front of the media to make the scandal a one-day news story. #2: Have an internally consistent narrative. #3: Create distractions. #4: If the distractions work, do nothing to remind people of the scandal. Which is why I can only assume, the person who is overseeing damage control in the White House is the anti-Olivia Pope. The proof?

1. A fixer never would have let Pam Bondi create an intra-MAGA firestorm by first claiming “she had the list of clients on my desk.”
2. Trump and his representatives would not have repeatedly made statements about the Epstein investigation which required clarification at best, or worse, complete walk-backs.
3. Failing to deliver the complete Epstein files within the 30-day target date followed by subsequent incremental dumps ensured the story would last for months rather than days or weeks.
4. They do create a distraction: Operation Midnight Hammer. However, DOJ immediately “obliterates” its value by issuing the “nothing to see here” FBI memorandum.
5. And within 24 hours of two major distractions (the Iran speech and moon launch), they do the one thing that assures the Epstein story reappears. Trump fires Pam Bondi.

It is hard to imagine anyone with a modicum of experience in crisis management could be this incompetent. Therefore, based on Occam’s razor (the simplest explanation is usually correct), the most probable scenario contributing to this spate of missteps is the total lack of a designated fixer. As he often tells us, Donald Trump believes only he could solve this problem. Or like his recent statement related to the Strait of Hormuz, the problem will “naturally” resolve itself. One more example of the Trump legacy, government by MAGIC! If only the incantation of “abracadabra” would make him go POOF!

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP