Cracks appear in the Trump's base

Friends, it's been an interesting week. For the first time in the decade since Donald Trump gloated his way down a golden elevator and announced his candidacy for office, cracks began to appear in his foundation. His increasingly bizarre deflections, lies and attempted distractions from the Jeffrey Epstein file scandal have, like his relationships with Elon Musk or Mike Pence, his myriad bankruptcies, the scorched earth of lawsuits and convictions left in his wake, started to rot. Shrewd observers have been noting all week that many among his diehard faithful have spoken out against the administration's assertion that there was no secret client list, no proof of blackmailing and, above all, no evidence that Epstein's death in prison was anything but suicide. Several of his most prominent team players took to social media to demand the release of the Epstein files, and for once to demand action from Trump himself instead of offering up praise. I have no idea what, if anything, the files would reveal that we don't already know, but I wonder whether his be the linchpin that derails the Trump train. "I don't get it. But hey, I'll take it," one of my friends said. I don't get it, either. It's not like he hasn't broken his promises to his base before. It's not like he hasn't demonstrably lied to them before. It's not like he isn't ordering the military around like his personal goon squad and demanding the incarceration of a huge swath of people without benefit of due process, or constructing a concentration camp on American soil. All that, all the horrors wrought against our sense of fairness, jurisprudence and the blatant trampling of our Constitution, couldn't sway his 'base.' Throwing the economy into a tailspin, ballooning the national deficit, and taking away food and healthcare from the neediest among us to give tax breaks to the wealthy wasn't a bridge too far. Cozying up to ruthless dictators, surrounding himself with unqualified people with questionable ethics, admiring cruelty and weaponizing greed, all that was fine. But there's something about Trump's refusal to let the sun shine on the Epstein nastiness that has gotten under the MAGA skin. It's not Trump's spiraling that catches the eye here. He's long proven to be a master manipulator of public opinion, boldly doing whatever he needs to do at any moment to assuage his Mount Olympus-sized ego. No, this time it's the shifting of the hardcore pack that held this man up that intrigues me. How strong are MAGA stomachs, I wonder. Strong enough to excuse away the felonies, the sexual abuse, an insurrection, but suddenly a vanished client list, which may or may exist, is enough to make them doubt their devotion? It's a mystery. I haven't paid much attention to the furor, as I suppose I've grown calloused to anyone's claim that This Time Is It, that surely some mud is finally going to stick to his tires. I'll believe it when I see it, and right now what I know for certain is that just about everyone I love and care about isn't sleeping well. "I just need things to be calm for a while," one of my oldest friends recently said to me. "Is that so hard? Do we have to be at crisis every single day?" Friends who work in the mental health field tell me their offices are overwhelmed with clients seeking help, relief, a break from their spiraling anxieties. I've found myself seeking respite at the shore, wading into Lake Erie and watching eagles hunt and dive over the water. It sets my mind adrift to stories I've read lately of the return of unusual behavior among killer whales living off the coast of Washington state and British Columbia. Right about the time of the election last year, scientists and whale watchers spotted orcas in the Puget Sound area swimming with dead fish on their heads. Weirdly, this wasn't the first time the massive mammals were spotted doing so: in 1987, a female orca was spotted wearing a salmon on her head. Within two weeks, her pod and others were sporting dead salmons on their heads, too. Whatever the fascination was, it was quickly broken. By the following summer, the orcas had thrown off their habit. Scientists are not sure why they're doing it again, but they think it may just be a matter of the whales taking advantage of plentiful food sources and using their heads — maybe because they lack pockets — to carry their extra bounty. Either way, the orcas — an endangered species — are dwindling in number, according to the government. Eventually even those proudly wearing their dead fish on their heads will eat them. Contact Chronicle-Telegram columnist Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.