Epstein’s Fury: The Inevitable Calculus of WWIII
Why was 9/11 such a lucky day for Epstein’s friends?
In cooperation with Israel, the U.S. military launched a “massive and ongoing operation” against Iran, “Operation Epic Fury,” which included bombing government ministries, military installations, and the Ayatollah’s residence. Iran has retaliated across the region, including against American bases—and against previously off-limits nations like the United Arab Emirates.
The plan is, according to Israel, just to bomb until the Iranian people overthrow the government themselves. This hope comes despite the Iranian regime murdering tens of thousands of people when protests erupted last month.
So far, the biggest casualty count is from an elementary girl’s school in Minab, Iran—with more than 50 now reported dead. There is no plan to fill the vacuum should the Iranian regime fall. Trump’s CIA recently assessed that the “Ayatollah would likely be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)“.
Aside from the illegality of going to war with Iran without Congressional approval, this has polled among the worst ideas of the Trump regime. A recent poll showed 21% support for attacking Iran.
This dangerous escalation is obviously not going to help Trump win any of his coveted peace prizes either, regardless of the end result of the hostilities. The running joke on the internet is that the “Board of Peace” is bored of peace.
So, if this is so unpopular, with no discernible positive outcome, why is Trump doing it?
While the answer is complicated—there are many reinforcing phenomena at work—once you add them up, this war of choice was effectively inevitable.
Strange Attraction
The Republican Party’s attachment to advancing Israel’s most hardline military and strategic goals—even at the expense of America’s interests—has been a feature of our politics for many decades. Here are a few excerpts from the GOP Platform at the RNC that nominated Reagan in 1980—a platform which took a maximalist pro-Israel position echoed by Trump’s actions now: rejection of a two-party state; moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem; and allowing Netanyahu to “finish the job” in Gaza.
At the same time that Reagan and the GOP were promoting the “moral imperative” of using American power to advance Israel’s interests, Reagan’s campaign manager William Casey was using Israel as a go-between in what became the “October Surprise.”
Israel guaranteed the Ayatollah that Iran would continue receiving arms shipments, in exchange for waiting until Reagan’s inauguration to release the hostages being held in Tehran. As I recently wrote, those negotiations also involved Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn, who received a testimonial dinner benefiting Israel’s bonds in 1983, attended by Trump, Rupert Murdoch, and Ace Greenberg—Epstein’s former boss.
It’s important to realize that the fact Israel colluded with the Reagan campaign to cheat was, by itself, massively compromising for everyone involved. Israel, Iran, and all the middlemen had leverage over not just Reagan, but the entire Republican project. This “special relationship” has never ended.
Iran’s “Nuclear Program”
In 2018, Iran had no nuclear program at all. None. The JCPOA negotiated by Obama was being enforced by the IAEA. There was no evidence that it was being breached. However, Netanyahu, under major legal scrutiny himself, made a presentation promoted by Mossad about how the agreement had been negotiated in bad faith.
This was a signal from Netanyahu to Trump, who had been raging about the “terrible Iran deal” for years, that he should rip it up—which Trump promptly did.
This set the stage for everything that came after. Netanyahu never wanted peace. He never wanted their nuclear program to end. He wanted to use it as a scapegoat.
Replaying the Hits—It’s Biblical
Another major influence over the conflict in the Middle East is a desire among many Christian supremacists and “Christian Zionists” to recreate the conditions for the End Times. This movement is not speculative or hidden—it’s large and growing. It’s why Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem. And it’s why people like Pete Hegseth claim to be so pro-Israel.
Many of the people in Trump’s Cabinet and the White House believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible that results in the Second Coming—and are actively engaged in trying to make it happen. They don’t see a hot war in the Middle East as a bad thing; they see it as a mandatory part of their personal salvation.
When Hamas launched the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, it started a chain of events that has gotten us here. As I wrote at the time, Netanyahu knew the attack was coming, did nothing to prevent it, and then lied about it to his own people.
The atrocities committed, first by Hamas, and then by Israel in its genocide in Gaza, all fit into an apocalyptic biblical script. It’s a conflict that suits Netanyahu because it keeps him out of prison, and satisfies his own long-standing bloodlust against Palestinians.
For Trump, who has never had a religious bone in his body, his behavior toward Israel and his obvious desire to fulfill evangelical narratives are just part of the same strategy he’s always used to defraud people. He appropriates anything he finds useful, perverts it, and weaponizes it for his own purposes.
Epstein’s Fury
The geopolitical and religious influences on Trump are powerful. There are numerous external pressures that pointed him in the direction of attacking Iran, but it is Trump’s own psychology which has the greatest impact on his decisions. And there is no greater force acting on Trump than his ego-injury from the Epstein files.
Trump’s narcissistic collapse over Epstein, his failures in Minnesota, and his crashing poll numbers, exacerbated by cognitive decline and increasing disinhibition, made a grandiose gesture of violence to go along with his grandiose delusions of omnipotence a certainty.
But why Iran, exactly?
There is oil, obviously. There is helping Netanyahu retain his power. And there is the distraction from Epstein.
However, in the Epstein files, from the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, there is a court transcript discussing Epstein’s property with a very interesting note.
In 1992, according to Maurene Comey’s prosecutor: “Mr. Epstein’s prior residence… was leased from the U.S. Government, who had taken possession of it from the government of Iran.”
There is a lot going on here. And it’s worth asking questions:
Why the hell was the U.S. Government leasing property to Jeffrey Epstein? This was in the heat of the campaign against Bill Clinton—and in the middle of Bush Sr.’s Iran-Contra scandal. That is a hell of a coincidence.
The man who led the cover up of Iran-Contra for Bush was William Barr—whose father hired Epstein at Dalton in 1975. William, of course, ended up arresting Epstein right before he died. Was William Barr already connected to Epstein in the early 1990s? Is that why Epstein got the lease?
Regardless, this connection raises even more disturbing questions about Epstein.
9/11—a Lucky Day for Jeffrey Epstein
While I resist 9/11 conspiracy theories like Kryptonite—having been down every imaginable rabbithole over the decades—I must point out a few facts that need a better explanation. First, the DOJ is withholding—for an unknown reason—20,000 files from the years 1999-2001. Why?
Second, two of Jeffrey Epstein’s close friends from the files, Howard Lutnick and Sarah Ferguson—wife of Epstein’s fellow pedophile, former Prince Andrew—had remarkable, almost unexplainable, luck in not dying on 9/11.
Lutnick’s story is that one day out of the blue he decided he would drive his kid to school for the first time—before removing all the employees from Cantor’s payroll. Fergie’s story has changed over the years—maybe something about traffic?
Andrew is currently being investigated in the UK but Lutnick is still the Commerce Secretary—after lying about his relationship with Epstein for years. The DOJ removed this photo of Lutnick on Epstein’s Island but it truly demands answers: Did Epstein warn his friends about 9/11? Did Howard Lutnick owe his life to Jeffrey Epstein?
While I’m not suggesting Epstein planned 9/11, although I wouldn’t put it past him, if there was one person in the western world who might know about it in advance, it would be Jeffrey Epstein. Note the hijackers trained in Florida where Epstein was heavily into aviation.
One of the only people to interview Osama bin Laden before 9/11 was Jamal Khashoggi—who was the nephew of Adnan Khashoggi, one of Jeffrey Epstein‘s longtime partners and clients. If there was a leak before 9/11, Epstein was in exactly the right circles—dirty Saudi money—to know about it.
It’s Always About Elections
In many ways, we’re seeing an attempted redo of the Bush-Cheney operation to lie themselves into executing regime change in Iraq—to benefit their billionaire friends. Except this time Trump isn’t even bothering with much of an excuse. He’s just doing it because he says he’s “not happy” with the Ayatollah.
This isn’t about money, or power for the regime anymore. It’s a fight for existence, for survival. It’s a race to take away our ability to look at what they’ve done, so they can keep doing it forever.
The Epstein files don’t just unlock a view into Trump and Epstein’s deviance; they peel away a layer of the onion not even the most gullible conspiracy theorist could cook up. That’s why Trump is desperate to give away our news stations to fascists, to take over AI, and to serve up a daily diet of outrage and horror.
If he loses our attention, the jig is up. Not just his presidency, but the entire Republican Party. The minute we collectively focus on the reality of what has actually happened to America, to see it in all of its layers of criminality, Trump loses everything.
The next obvious step for Trump is to use this self-inflicted war with Iran to invoke emergency powers so he can interfere with the midterm elections.
Another 9/11 is exactly what he wants. That’s why he’s taunting Iran. And it’s why Mike Flynn is already helping Trump plan for how to take advantage of the war to steal the midterm elections.
It’s essentially a replay of what they tried in 2020. And 2016. And 1980.
Almost like a pattern.
If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription, please consider it! I never hide important information behind a paywall, so I rely on my readers for support. Thank you for reading and sharing!
If you’d like to help me with expenses, here is my DonorBox. 💙
Here are a few benefits to upgrading:
Live Zoom call each Sunday
Ability to comment and access all content
Wonderful, supportive community
Helping independent journalism fill in the gaps for our failing media
If you’d like to help with my legal fees: DefendSpeechNow.org.
My podcast is @radicalizedpod & YouTube — Livestream is Fridays at 3PM PT.
Bluesky 🦋: jim-stewartson
Threads: jimstewartson
My mouth is still opened,Jim. Outstanding deep dive into trump/Epstein and soo many more. My mind is completely blown, Thank you, I hope everyone can read your article tonight 🙏 and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
The suggestions you make here, while not all proved, cannot be ignored. The probabilities are plausible and follow from actual patterns and events. The unimaginable staying power of this dreadful chapter of history (the authoritarian destruction of western democratic hegemony) depends on enormous conspiracies, which day by day are being exposed. To think that sex trafficking of underage girls is their Achilles heel could not be dreamed up.