If you closed your computer on Friday as Donald Trump was making fumbling attempts to contain the scandal over the Jeffrey Epstein files and his newly unveiled birthday letter to the late sex offender, you’re probably confused right now. Why did Trump post a video of Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office? Why are we all talking about the Washington Commanders again? And what’s going on with this deodorant recall?
I can’t help you with that last question. But I can shed some light on Trump’s (apparently successful) effort to regain control of the Epstein narrative, which reached its apex when the president reposted an exceptionally unhinged TikTok on Sunday. Here’s a Q&A on the madness you missed over the weekend.
Did Trump make the Obama arrest video?
No, he just shared it on Truth Social. At 6:47 p.m. on Sunday, Trump posted this TikTok video with no commentary:
What the hell am I looking at?
The first 34 seconds of the video, which was posted by TikTok user @neo8171 yesterday, shows real footage of Obama, Joe Biden, and various other elected Democrats, saying, “No one is above the law,” as the Curb Your Enthusiasm song plays in the background.
Then there’s a clip of Biden, saying, “Well, son of a bitch,” and fart and laughing noises over a shot of a clown version of the Pepe the Frog meme.
The rest of the video shows Trump smiling as FBI agents handcuff Obama and drag him out of the Oval Office. Then Obama is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit in a jail cell.
Why is “Y.M.C.A.” playing during Obama’s arrest?
Just because it’s one of Trump’s favorite songs. That’s the beauty of the Village People banger: You can play it at kids’ parties, you can blast it at a Pride parade, or you can use it as the soundtrack to deranged MAGA slop.
Why is the line “No one is above the law” funny?
For the intended audience, it’s amusing because all of these Democrats are notorious criminals who will soon be brought to justice by the Trump administration. For everyone else, it’s just ironic in a deeply sad way since the president sharing the video has basically declared he’s above the law.
Isn’t Trump an actual convict?
Yes. Trump became the first (then-former) president convicted of a crime in 2024 when a Manhattan jury found him guilty on 34 felony counts related to falsified business records to conceal hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. He was sentenced to an “unconditional discharge” in January, which means the conviction stands but Trump will face no consequences. Trump is still appealing.
So why is Trump threatening to arrest Obama?
The short answer: to distract from the Epstein scandal.
The longer answer: On Friday afternoon, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused Obama and others in his administration of conspiring to undermine Trump’s 2016 win via an intelligence assessment that concluded Russia tried to influence the election in Trump’s favor (but did not say Russia manipulated any votes).
Gabbard declassified documents related to the eight-year-old assessment and claimed in a press release that they were proof that “President Obama and his national security Cabinet members manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”
In an X post, Gabbard said she was “turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral.” Though she did not say whether she was referring to specific people, and as CNN noted, “A criminal referral does not necessarily mean the Justice Department will investigate or prosecute.”
“Democrats denounced the effort as politically motivated, error-ridden, and in contradiction with previous reviews of the assessment,” the New York Times reported.
Has Trump threatened to imprison Obama before?
Yes. “Instances of Trump calling on his predecessor to be jailed are too many to count,” as Mother Jones put it in this running list of all the political enemies Trump has threatened to jail.
What else did he do to distract from the Epstein scandal?
The fake Obama video was part of an exceptionally deranged deluge of Truth Social posts this weekend. Topics included Trump saying Adam Schiff should “pay the price of prison” for alleged mortgage fraud, threatening to block the NFL’s Washington Commanders’ stadium deal unless they returned to their offensive original name, and repeatedly claiming he “totally revived a major Country” during the first six months of his second term.
Trump also teased jail time for Obama and top officials from his administration with this meme:
Obviously, these images were computer generated. Unlike Trump, none of these people have real mug shots.
And MAGA world bought that?
It seems so! The New York Times reported that by Monday Trump had managed to placate the MAGA base by teasing more Epstein disclosures, flipping the story against the media, and playing up the idea that he’ll get vengeance on everyone who unjustly persecuted him:
Mr. Trump turned one of the most fractious moments for his base into one of the most unifying by tapping into other MAGA grievances: the deep mistrust of mainstream media, the disdain for Rupert Murdoch and the belief that the president had been unfairly persecuted by his political foes.
Almost immediately, many of those who had been critical of the administration’s handling of the Epstein case cheered the president on as he vehemently denied the claims, sued The Journal and ordered his attorney general to seek the release of more information.
Mr. Trump’s allies in the hard-right “Make America Great Again” movement — known as MAGA — said that the discontent that had divided the base had dissipated, but had not been eliminated, at least for now.
Is there some evergreen tweet that sums up this entire story?
Here you go:
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