President Donald Trump has offered up yet another sacrifice in his ongoing attempts to divert attention from renewed interest in the Jeffrey Epstein files: Oprah Winfrey.
Trump doubled down on conspiracy theories surrounding his Democratic opponents in a Truth Social post on Saturday night. “I’m looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election,” the president announced, before going on to accuse the Kamala Harris campaign of “paying, probably illegally,” millions of dollars for celebrity endorsements.
Trump accused Harris of paying Beyoncé $11 million to appear at a Houston rally, adding, “She never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!” He also accused the Harris campaign of spending $3 million on “expenses” for Oprah Winfrey, and $600,000 to “very low rated TV ‘anchor,’ Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!)” for doing “absolutely NOTHING!“
He continued, “YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO,” before asking, ”Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out!”
Trump concluded, ”Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted!”
Beyoncé appeared at Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally stop in Houston, while Oprah appeared at the Harris campaign’s final rally before the election. Harris was interviewed by Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC during her election campaign, with the news that the Harris campaign paid $500,000 to Sharpton’s National Action Network raising eyebrows at the time.
Trump’s Truth Social post is his administration’s latest attempt to draw public attention away from Epstein—both his administration’s refusal to release his files, as well as the president’s decades-long friendship with the convicted sex trafficker—following earlier attempts by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to accuse the Obama administration of attempting to undermine Trump’s 2016 election win.
A former CIA officer who helped investigate potential Russian interference in the election has asserted that Gabbard and the White House are lying, and that the U.S. “definitely had the intel to show with high probability that the specific goal of the Russians was to get Trump elected.”
Trump has changed his opinion on Oprah over the years—once friendly, with Trump telling Larry King in 1999 that Oprah would “always be [his] first choice” for VP if he were to run for president.
“She really is a great woman, though, she is a terrific woman. She is somebody that’s very special,” he told King. ”That would be a pretty good ticket.” In a letter Oprah sent Trump in 2000, she wrote, “Too bad we’re not running for office. What A TEAM!”
Two decades on and now in office, Trump has changed his tune, and is presumably upset at Oprah’s endorsement of his political opponents. Taking time out of his schedule on Election Day to speak to reporters, Trump admonished Oprah for her speech at Harris’ rally, saying, “I think Oprah’s become a major divider in our country and I think frankly she should be ashamed of herself.”
Trump mentioned the 2000 letter in his complaints, telling reporters that she “wanted to run with me as the vice president, and now she goes and makes statements like that.”
He added, “She’s a divider. And Barack Hussein Obama is a divider, too.”
