Good morning. It's Sunday, August the 10th. I'm Ali Valshi. Donald Trump, the man who's proved remarkably adept at surviving crisis after crisis may have finally crossed the wrong people. His own base.

The same base that elected him because they believe he was an outsider, someone who

would take on powerful corrupt elite, despite having done quite the opposite the last time he

was president. But this Jeffrey Epstein fiasco is exposing a different reality. After the Trump

administration backtracked last month on its pledge to release more details about the late

Jeffrey Epstein, the president has found it increasingly difficult to shake

public attention from his decades-long association with the accused child sex trafficker.

Trump's frantic attempts to control the narrative are looking to some like a cover-up.

It caused many Republicans in Congress, some of whom up until this point have never gone against

Trump to demand more transparency.

That threat from typically MAGA representatives was so great that Speaker Mike Johnson basically

shut down the House early and sent all the members home for an extended summer recess to prevent

voting on a measure to release the files. And importantly, to avoid angering Trump. The latest chapter in

Operation Protect Trump at all costs involves a strategy session that took place at the White

House on Wednesday. Initially, there were reports that Vice President J.D. Vance and top DOJ officials

would meet at the Vice President's house to strategize on how to handle

the Epstein files. Trump dismissed those reports, calling them, quote, total bullspit, although the way

he pronounced the P and spit made it sound more like an H. Weird. But we now know that that meeting,

a meeting of sorts did happen. A person close to the White House told NBC the

meeting took place, but it happened at the White House instead. In attendance was the U.S. Attorney

General, Pam Bondi, who continues to have legal obligations to Trump as his personal attorney,

having represented him in his first impeachment trial, and FBI director Cash Patel.

...