The fog behind the Epstein curtain by Thanos Kalamidas

I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories. They’re usually the playground of those who mistake chaos for design and gossip for truth. Whether they come from the left, the right, or the dimly lit corners of online echo chambers, I tend to roll my eyes and move on. Political gossip is the same poison in a different bottle while it can be intoxicating and addictive it’s almost always detached from fact. I believe in honest journalism, investigator reporters, courts, judges ...in due process. That’s where truth is supposed to be tested, not on social media or in the fever dreams of partisan warriors.

And yet -and this is a colossal yet, something about the current panic surrounding the Epstein files and Donald Trump’s desperate manoeuvres to stop them from leaking scratches at that cynic’s armour. Because if there’s one thing history has taught us about power, it’s that those who rush to cover the ...curtain usually do so not to protect justice but to protect themselves.

Let’s get one thing straight. The whole Epstein affair has always been a moral wasteland, a toxic mix of money, power, and human exploitation. It’s a story so dark that even Hollywood’s most depraved screenwriters would reject it as too grotesque. Men of influence, politicians, businessmen, celebrities, presidents and ...princes, moved around Jeffrey Epstein like moths circling a lamp made of pure corruption. His island, his planes, his black book, all symbols of a grotesque underworld hiding in plain sight.

For years, the powerful dismissed it as rumour, the media treated it as gossip, and the justice system looked the other way. Epstein’s eventual arrest and mysterious death didn’t clean the stain; it merely made the shadows longer. His story didn’t end it literally mutated. And now, as we inch closer to the public release of files that could name names and unveil connections, one man is clearly sweating more than the rest.

Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed titan who once strutted through scandals like a bull through a paper fence is suddenly terrified. And when a man like Trump panics, you should ask why.

Let’s remember, this is the man who survived the “Grab her by the pussy” tape. A man who mocked disabled reporters, called veterans losers, paid hush money to porn stars, and still made it to the Oval Office. Every political law of gravity failed him. Scandal became his oxygen. So if this man, the unshakable showman, the self-branded Teflon icon of controversy, is now in full-blown damage control mode over the Epstein files, then what on earth is hiding in there?

This is not the reaction of a man confident in his innocence. It’s the reaction of someone who knows the fire is about to touch the hem of his golden robe. He’s not trying to protect the public from misinformation; he’s trying to bury the truth under procedural mud, to drown it in bureaucracy, to weaponize power not in defence of justice but in defence of his image.

And that’s the part that should worry everyone, regardless of political affiliation. Because when leaders start using the machinery of state to shield themselves from accountability, democracy starts to rot. It doesn’t happen with coups or tanks in the streets it happens quietly, through legal manoeuvres, intimidation, and the corruption of public trust.

The Trump playbook has always been simple, deny, deflect, attack. But panic breaks patterns. Panic reveals fear. The walls of bravado are shaking, and behind them, there’s a man who suddenly realizes that the Epstein files aren’t just gossip columns, they’re evidence. Evidence that could tie him to one of the most abhorrent criminal enterprises of modern times.

Now, I’m not saying Trump’s name will appear next to some sordid account of abuse. That’s for the files and the courts to decide. But I am saying that his behaviour betrays his fear of what might be revealed. Power doesn’t panic for no reason. If these documents were truly harmless, if they were just the feverish imaginings of conspiracists, Trump would do what he’s always done: mock, dismiss, and move on. Instead, he’s reacting like a man cornered.

And here’s the irony, his reaction is doing the opposite of what he intends. Every attempt to stop the files from leaking only magnifies curiosity. Every whisper of legal manoeuvring, every rumour of suppression, adds another layer of suspicion. Trump’s empire has always thrived on attention, but this time, the spotlight is melting the wax instead of polishing it.

What’s most tragic -and telling, is that this panic is not born of moral outrage. It’s not the cry of a man disgusted by Epstein’s crimes. It’s the flailing of a man terrified of being caught near the debris. He’s not trying to protect victims; he’s trying to protect himself from being remembered as part of the filth.

But history is merciless. Once Pandora’s box is opened, it cannot be sealed again. The truth, no matter how carefully redacted, has a way of seeping out. The more one tries to contain it, the more violently it escapes.

Perhaps Trump thinks this is just another PR storm to be weathered, another headline to outshout. But this time, he may be wrong. The Epstein files aren’t about politics. They’re about power and what powerful men do when they think no one is watching.

The tragedy is that the world was watching, it just chose to look away. Until now.

So yes, I still distrust conspiracy theories. I still prefer courts to social-media threads. But when I see the world’s most shameless man suddenly trembling behind legal barricades, I stop and listen. Because maybe, just maybe, this isn’t gossip anymore.

This feels like the scent of truth, the kind that terrifies those who’ve spent their lives burying it.