March 9, 2026

There can be no doubt that President Donald Trump epitomizes capitalist depravity. Now there’s even more proof from the Epstein files with a woman accusing Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager — abuse that Epstein allegedly arranged.

The information in the latest dump of files — which is heavily redacted in a way that protects abusers but not survivors of abuse — nevertheless includes names of numerous ruling-class figures. Among associates of the late Jeffrey Epstein and his sex trafficking operation are business executives, Wall Street bankers, billionaires and millionaires – including Elon Musk and Les Wexner – politicians and members of royal families, such as Britain’s former Prince Andrew. Epstein procured women, girls and gender-oppressed people and made them available for sexual exploitation.

Sometimes these dealings were combined with all sorts of financial misconduct. This is how Epstein, whose fortune is estimated at $600 million, got rich.

No wonder billionaire capitalists are now being referred to as “the Epstein class” or “the Epstein cabal.” People recognize the link between wealth and power — acquired by the exploitation of working-class and oppressed people — and sexual exploitation. The capitalist class has a predisposition toward engaging in the horrible abuse that Epstein’s survivors have graphically exposed. The files, even with all the redactions and even with millions of pieces of evidence still being withheld, make that fact obvious.

Now it may seem, even to some antiwar activists, that Trump launched a war against Iran as a distraction from the damning evidence in the Epstein files. That’s not an accurate assessment. This imperialist war, like all imperialist wars, is driven by the profit system’s need to expand, in this period by recolonizing its former areas of control in the Global South.

In any case, if Trump thought there would be any diversion away from his Epstein association, he was mistaken. Polls show the vast majority of people in the U.S. and elsewhere oppose the war against Iran, and other polls show Trump’s disapproval ratings above 50%.

In fact, the massacre of over 165 Iranian school girls by the U.S. military on Feb. 28 is another example of Trump’s misogynistic depravity.

Revolutionaries need to be the opposite of the patriarchal billionaire class and act in solidarity with women, girls, gender-oppressed people, LGBTQIA2S+ communities and survivors of trauma. We need to use the negative examples of Epstein, Trump, the former prince and so many others in the global ruling class to explain how misogyny is rooted in class society.

Smash the patriarchy! Smash capitalism!