But a lesser-noticed element of the debate centered on a question posed by Rachel Campos Duffy, co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” the show on which the interview first aired.
“Americans have lost a lot of trust in institutions, and I think there’s a lot of discussion about that, especially online, especially among young people,” Campos-Duffy began. “How do we rebuild trust in institutions like the CIA and the FBI?”
“That’s correct,” Trump replied, but before he could respond, Campos-Duffie spoke up first.
“Some people believe one way to build trust is to declassify things that everyone is talking about,” she said, before offering up a rapid-fire list of things he might be interested in declassifying, ostensibly to restore trust in the agency.
“Would you declassify the 9/11 files?” she asked, to which Trump replied, “Yes.”
“Would you declassify the JFK files?” she continued, to which he again answered, “Yes.” But now Trump added, “I did. I pretty much did.”
This is a reminder that President Trump had opportunities to declassify this information before, but did not do so, particularly with regard to materials related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“Would you declassify the Epstein file?” Campos Duffy asked, referring to the disgraced financier who had ties to several prominent Americans.
“Yeah,” Trump replied. “Yeah, I would.”
Host Pete Hegseth was next to ask a question — at least that’s how it aired: The full interview, posted on YouTube, shows Trump had more to think about Epstein.
“You would think so,” Trump continued in the YouTube version, “but I don’t really think so, because if there was fake stuff out there, you wouldn’t want it affecting people’s lives, because there’s a lot of fake stuff out there.”
Of course, among those allegedly linked to Epstein is former President Donald Trump, who may well have been hesitant to caution Campos-Duffy that declassifying the information could be misleading.
“Do you think it will restore trust? Do you think it will help restore trust?” Campos Duffy asked.
“I don’t know as much about Epstein as other people,” Trump replied. There was one area he wasn’t worried about releasing: Epstein’s death in custody. Trump also volunteered to declassify documents related to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Epstein’s off-air awkwardness aside, Campos-Duffy’s question and Trump’s response are thought-provoking. It’s clear that many Americans view major institutions with skepticism, especially among younger Americans. It’s also true that Trump has long stoked and exploited this perception, and there’s no reason to think he’ll do anything to counter it.
Trump’s rhetoric consistently plays up the idea that powerful interests are working against average Americans, but he usually focuses on instances where he claims they are working against him: America under any other president has always been on the brink of collapse, while America under Trump has been an exceptional and extraordinary place, barring the occasional pandemic.
The idea that no institution can be trusted — not science, not military leaders who disagree with them, not teachers, and certainly not the media — is a common feature of authoritarian political leaders. By undermining trust in civilian institutions, they can strengthen trust in themselves. This has been Trump’s strategy from the start.
This is particularly advantageous for Trump at the moment, as it allows him to appeal to young independent voters. President Biden’s approval rating among younger generations has fallen sharply in his first year in office, and in the latest polls he is doing worse than most recent Democratic presidential candidates. This is certainly partly because younger generations are less likely to be engaged with the political system and therefore more likely to view his candidacy skeptically. Biden’s approval rating is good among those most interested in the political process.
It’s not that younger Americans are becoming more skeptical of all institutions. Findings from the General Social Survey, a biennial national opinion poll, show that younger Americans have less trust in some institutions, including the military, religion and the news media. In some cases, like Congress, younger Americans have more trust than Americans over 65. (The U.S. government-centered category is shown in the gray box.)
Looking only at those under 40, we often see a partisan divide. But independents, including those who lean to one party or the other, are not the group that shows the most trust in any institution. They are consistently the group that shows the least trust in government institutions.
This view is echoed elsewhere: Last month, Siena College released a poll conducted for The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer looking at opinions in battleground states, where younger respondents were more likely than older ones to say the U.S. political and economic systems need major reform or should be dismantled entirely.
The level of support for Trump among young respondents in these states correlated with the extent to which they believed his promises to overturn the system were good or bad for the country.
For Trump, restoring trust to agencies like the CIA and FBI mentioned by Campos-Duffy means little more than ensuring they are doing his will. Restoring trust to the entire government means he is president and empowered to reshape the federal bureaucracy to install as many loyal supporters as possible.
Trump is willing to agree to the release of documents related to the September 11 terrorist attacks and the assassination of President Kennedy not because he believes it will somehow increase trust in government institutions, but because he knows that it will almost certainly have the opposite effect, and that even insisting that these files need to be released is a way of increasing distrust in government. What on earth are they hiding?
And the more he can increase people’s skepticism of the government and the current president, young and old, the better his chances of returning to the White House, where he will have the power to restructure the government in a way that allows at least one man — himself — to have complete confidence in how it is run.
