This week, President Trump found himself in an unfamiliar and maddening position.

Some of his most enthusiastic supporters are wondering if he himself is involved in a Jeffrey Epstein cover-up.

A president who rose to prominence promoting conspiracy theories now confronts a conspiracy theory about himself.

The consequences for his movement and his presidency

could be enormous. Next.

Good evening and welcome to Washington Week. Remember way back when Donald Trump argued

that Barack Obama was born in Kenya? And remember not so way back when, when Trump told us the Democrats and the deep state stole

the 2020 election? Perhaps the lesson this week is live by conspiracy theories, die by conspiracy

theories. Far be it for me to suggest that Trump is in political trouble. He is, after all,

one of the luckiest men in the

history of American politics, but this has been a stressful week in Maga Land. It is also

undoubtedly stressful, and let's not forget this important point, for the actual victims

of Jeffrey Epstein's terrible crimes. Tonight, we'll talk about the relationship between Trump

and about the consequences of this very strange episode.

Joining me tonight at the table, Leanne Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck.

Stephen Hayes is the editor of the dispatch.

Meredith McGrath is a White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and Michael Shear is a White House correspondent for the Atlantic.

Thank you all for joining me tonight. Before we get to this week's weird main event,

I want to just talk for a minute about something that just happened in Congress. Congress has

voted, narrowly voted, to claw back money

that it had already budgeted for foreign aid, but for our purposes, I want to talk about something

that directly affects us, the corporation public broadcasting, which provides funds for NPR

...