Donald Trump told aides that he cannot fathom the public fixation with his links to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, saying that Palm Beach in the 1990s was a different time, according to a report.

The president may have had a reprieve from the wall-to-wall headlines and calls to make public files that will purportedly show just how close he was to the late, disgraced financier, although it refuses to die down entirely.

But back in the summer, with his long-standing friendship with Epstein very much under the microscope and his MAGA base livid at his refusal to release the files, things were very different as the White House scrambled to contain the crisis.

According to the Wall Street Journal, on day two of a July conservative conference in Tampa, Trump hit the phone to influential allies,

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