The release of a substantial quantity of emails belonging to a convicted child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein has led Donald Trump to work the phones, calling on allies to publicly support him.

However, as Jonathan Lemire is reporting in The Atlantic, the president is running into resistance from some allies he has reached out to because he is keeping them in the dark and acting like he has something to hide.

As the journalist explained, there is a sense of dread at the White House that the die is cast and the files will be released and there is concern about what they might contain because the president has not been forthcoming about details about his relationship.

With Lemire noting a prevailing attitude among insiders about, “What exactly is Trump trying to prevent from being released?” he added Trump’s phone calls are reportedly more about his fury at the turn of events and less a defense against the allegations.

"For months, White House aides have snapped at reporters who even mentioned the word Epstein. But in private moments, members of the president’s inner circle acknowledge that they don’t know the true extent of Trump’s relationship with Epstein,” Lemire is reporting before adding, “Is he trying to protect himself? Or someone close to him? He doesn’t talk about it, allies say, except to fume that it’s still a story. But Trump’s over-the-top response prompted the ally he called to urge Trump to change tactics because he’s ‘not acting like someone who has nothing to hide.’”

The report adds that Trump’s position on the Epstein firestorm has not moved since Pam Bondi boasted she the Epstein files on her desk, and Trump responded by making it “clear that he wanted to move on, blasting those still obsessed with Epstein."

As Trump put it at the time, Epstein had been “dead for a long time. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is.”

Trump’s attempt to make it all go away has left some of his biggest supporters feeling “betrayed,” Lemire is reporting before adding, “Indeed, Trump’s own efforts to manage the story have only fed it.”

“Few people in the White House believe that the Epstein matter will swing many votes next year. But it has the makings of an unrelenting distraction, a scandal that could bog down Trump’s presidency,” the report notes. “Further Republican rebellions could loosen Trump’s grip on the GOP just as he is trying to preserve his party’s Capitol Hill majorities. Should he lose one or both of the houses of Congress next year, he’d face congressional investigations and be firmly relegated to lame-duck status.”

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