" Now you can understand why Trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends."
Yet oddly, what has been universally left out of media coverage of that quote is what it was in reference to: Epstein appeared to be taking credit for former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak's reentry into Israeli politics in 2019, which aimed to topple current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the second of what would be three Israeli elections in a year.
In June 2019, after spending years attacking Netanyahu's increasingly extreme and corruption-embroiled rule, Barak, a former defense minister and military chief of staff, officially came out of retirement and formed a new party to challenge him. In a chat with former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that month, Epstein implied the move was his doing, as he shared a report from Israeli outlet Ynet Global about Barak's announcement.
"I've been busy," Epstein wrote in a follow-up message. "Wow!!!" Bannon replied. (Jacobin has cleaned up Epstein's bizarre punctuation for clarity.)
"I'm dealing with Ehud in Israel. Making me crazy," Epstein elaborated twelve minutes later.
"Ehud massive can we announce I'm his strategic advisor?" Bannon asked.
"This will be a long campaign. Elections in sept (17). Lots to talk about," Epstein wrote back.
"This is brilliant move," wrote Bannon.
"Thx. Only the first step," Epstein replied, before writing the quote that has been so widely spread in the past week free of its context. "Now you can understand why Trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends."
https://jacobin.com/202