If there is nothing happening in Washington DC, then there is something wrong, for there is never a dull moment on Capitol Hill or Pennsylvania Avenue. Just when many heaved a sigh of relief that the government shutdown was over and brightened prospects of a peaceful Thanksgiving meal, lawmakers cutting across party lines are huffing and puffing over something called Epstein Files. With this come two other dramas played out on the sidelines: on H1B visas and whether the administration is getting ready for an all-out invasion of Venezuela.

To some extent the messes are created by Presidents themselves. In the 1970s Richard Nixon started the Watergate crisis by being the architect of the break-in of the Democratic Party headquarters. The efforts at the cover-up were seen as a far worse crime, and with this the money trails. And then in the 1990s there was President Bill Clinton’s self-inflicted wound over a sex scandal that he initially tried to get over by denying, and later by way of legal and moral parsing of the word “sex.” And now President Donald Trump has opened a can of worms on the Jeffrey Epstein files.

In the heat of the 2024 Presidential campaign, Candidate Trump vowed to out the Epstein files collated by the Justice Department of the Biden administration. The files of the late American financier and sex offender, whose many victims were underage and perhaps trafficked, are said to contain the names of several influentials of both Republicans and Democrats, including that of President Trump. Now bits and pieces have surfaced in the media that do not put the President in a positive light, even as there is nothing to show any wrongdoing. But that does not seem to satisfy lawmakers, especially Republicans, who want the White House to come clean on a campaign promise.

In a move that is seen as obfuscating and deflecting, President Trump is now arguing that the Epstein files are a “hoax” put together by the Democrats to divert attention and has ordered his Justice Department to get into the activities of prominent Democrats, including President Clinton, and banks with the deceased Epstein who took his own life in 2019. The argument of lawmakers is that if there is nothing to hide, then it should be in the open. A Congressional vote, which many believe is not necessary, is scheduled for next week, and nearly everyone is looking at the margin of the outcome, especially Republicans.

For close to two months the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, was refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who won a special election on September 23, by keeping the House members away from Washington DC, as the Democratic Arizona lawmaker would have been the 218th signature on a “discharge” petition to force a House vote on the Epstein files.

Now all eyes are on to see if the bipartisan push will cross the two-thirds veto-proof majority that will send a clear signal to both the Senate and the White House. President Trump has maintained that he got rid of Epstein from his circle when the chips were down. Still, lawmakers and the core supporters in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) crowd want to see the files to believe.

A second sideshow that is taking place in the capital has to do with the H1B visas that have always been a bone of contention with right-wing Republicans and the MAGA folks. Things have gone to an extent that President Trump has broken away from one of his top conservative backers on Capitol Hill, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has called for either completely doing away with that high-skilled visa or making it ineligible for a Green Card and therefore a pathway to citizenship.

President Trump always backed the H1B, stressing that America needed high-skilled people, but it is still unclear whether he would need the talent after a six-year period and ask the holders to leave the United States. Representative Greene has introduced a Bill in the House on the lines of her likes, but she is said to have been the primary author of more than five dozen bills, none of them seeing the light of day. In any event, it only sharpens the divide between the White House and die-hards in the MAGA on immigration issues.

“I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of ‘Congresswoman’ Marjorie Taylor Greene,” President Trump said in his social media post, stressing that the legislator running for re-election in Georgia in November 2026 has “gone Far Left.” Further he added, “She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.” And lawmaker Greene’s response: “Of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files.”

And critics are also looking at developments in the Caribbean to see if the Trump administration will be involved in a full-scale invasion of Venezuela, going far beyond knocking off boats ostensibly loaded with drugs destined to America. The rumblings in the Pacific have raised larger questions of international law, War Powers Act, regime change, the mobilizations in Venezuela, and a warning from Moscow, an ally of Nicolas Maduro. The bottom line is always with President Trump: whether he will opt for the full disclosure of the Epstein files or wander around with deflections and diversions for a sex offender and pedophile in which there may not even be a personal connection.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article/column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of South Asian Herald.

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