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Donald Trump read his situation with a clear eye and pivoted . He was hemorrhaging support among Republicans over his obstinance to releasing all the files the Department of Justice had swept up in its investigations of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. His efforts to deflect or appear to be addressing the situation internally were being met with both outrage and ridicule.

So Trump faced a choice: shift his stance and join the mob he had spent a decade nurturing, or stay defiant and pledge to veto the disclosure bill if it ever got to his desk. This was not a fight he could win by bending the base his way.

So Trump appears to

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