Donald Trump and his second term as president have been sinking for months into treacherous political quicksand known as the "Epstein files."

The more Trump struggled to free himself from the very scandal he courted as a presidential candidate, the more he became mired, slowly submerging in a quagmire of his own making.

Call it karma. Call it kismet.

But also call it an embarrassing loss for Trump, who has finally realized that struggling in quicksand just makes it worse. That realization was clearly prompted by a vote in the U.S. House on releasing the Epstein files, expected to happen on Nov. 18 despite Trump's many attempts to stop it.

Trump, in an angry Nov. 16 social media post, declared that Republicans in the U.S. House "should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide." He also complained that the scandal was a "hoax" – of course – used by Democrats to distract us all from what a great president he is.

And he declared "I DON'T CARE!" about releasing the Epstein files – the all-caps emphasis exposing his bogus attempt at expressing apathy.

But what was really telling from Trump's post was this line: "Some 'members' of the Republican Party are being 'used,' and we can't let that happen."

Trump wants to rewrite history. It won't work.

That's a shot at a trio of House members who are usually MAGA acolytes but are now bucking Trump on the Epstein files: Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. They joined with U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who dared to push legislation to release the files with U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat.

Mace and Boebert resisted Trump's efforts last week to make them back off. Trump on Nov. 16 denounced Greene, once a devoted follower, as a traitor.

Trump knows, because Massie has made it clear, that a deluge of the president's usually loyal Republican allies in the House are about to abandon him and his desperate efforts to keep the Epstein files locked up at the U.S. Department of Justice. So his post was just another frenzied play to rewrite the narrative, to convert a loss into a win.

That won't work.

Consider this: The Department of Justice now does whatever Trump wants, without question, without regard for the law or ethics. If Trump really wanted us to see the Epstein files, which he claims he's totally not afraid of, he could just order Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the documents.

Remember, news reports say it was Bondi who delivered the bad news to Trump the spring that his name is mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files.

It was Bondi who, in July, then tried to convince us that there was nothing to see in the Epstein files, an absurd announcement met with the derision it deserved.

But a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigation, empaneled to distract attention from the Department of Justice's refusal to release the files, has instead intensified the scrutiny as Epstein's estate has supplied reams and reams of documents, many of which mention Trump in a multitude of embarrassing ways.

Trump and his allies could finally be out of moves to hide the Epstein files

The slimy shame of Trump's Epstein files scandal dates to his pre-political days as a louche lout running around with his creepy pal, Jeffrey Epstein, the would-be convicted sex offender who killed himself in 2019 in prison during Trump's first term while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls as young as 14.

Epstein's accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, has parlayed her knowledge of Trump's relationship with Epstein, winning more comfortable lodgings for her 20-year prison sentence as she crafts an appeal for Trump to pardon her or commute her sentence.

Trump has repeatedly said for months that he has the power to pardon Maxwell, while also claiming he hasn't given it much thought. He said that as recently as Nov 14. Rank that up on the honesty scale with Trump now claiming he wants the Epstein files released after months of trying to keep them secret.

Trump's chief ally in his failed bid for secrecy has been House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has twice used his power this year to shut down his chamber, preventing votes on whether to release the Epstein files.

Johnson sent the House home early for summer break in July to stymie an effort to call that vote. And then he refused to open for business to swear in a newly elected Democrat, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who last week provided the final, critical support needed to force the vote on Nov. 18 to release the Epstein files.

Johnson is out of moves here. The vote he wanted to avoid is looming.

If the House passes the Massie-Khanna legislation, it goes to the Republican-controlled Senate for consideration. The Senate could bottle up the bill, refusing to vote on it. But that would now be in defiance of Trump's new call to move the legislation forward, and of public sentiment leaning toward disclosure of the files.

If the Senate passes the bill, the president will then need to sign it into law. Just imagine the humiliation for Trump, working so hard to avoid the release of the Epstein files, only to have the final step for that release sitting on his desk.

Call it karma. Call it kismet. But also call it long-overdue justice.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump desperately tries to make his loss on the Epstein files look like a win | Opinion

Reporting by Chris Brennan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect