Farmers know predators and can spot them early. They can see the coyote eyeing the flock, the fox slipping into the henhouse, or worse, the threat to our own children. The rule is simple and ironclad, and that’s to protect what’s yours. You don’t wait for permission, you don’t negotiate, and you don’t hope for the best. You eliminate the danger before it strikes again.
The massive release of Jeffrey Epstein files by the Department of Justice in late January 2026 is over 3 million pages, thousands of images, and hours of video, and it has shown rural America exactly what many of us have long suspected. The ruling elite, the people in Washington who write the laws, set the policies, and control the money printer, are either directly implicated in preying on innocent children or complicit in the decades-long cover-up.
These documents detail Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls and include allegations that he funneled victims to other powerful men. Names like Harvey Weinstein and Leon Black appear in claims of sexual exploitation arranged through Epstein’s network. Victims described massages turning into threats and forced acts. While those accused deny everything and no new criminal charges have come from this batch, the pattern is clear. There is a web of wealthy, connected people benefiting from the abuse of minors, with little apparent consequence.
We already knew Epstein ran with presidents, billionaires, and politicians, but the new files add more names. Elon Musk in old messages, former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, Lawrence Summers, Steve Bannon, and many other contacts, including those continuing even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes. The DOJ itself admits reviews found nothing to prosecute additional people, yet the sheer volume of associations raises the question: how much was known, and why was so little done?
This is not abstract. Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell groomed and abused girls as young as teens, using homes, islands, and connections to trap them. The files include victim timelines, FBI charts of abuse, and reports of Epstein’s circle treating minors like commodities. For rural families who raise their kids on farms, teach them right from wrong, and fear strangers who might do harm, this hits home. These elites were not protecting the innocent; they were part of the threat or looked the other way.
Now look at what these same people have done to rural America. They flood the market with cheap imports, strangle us with regulations, and drive up costs while paying lip service to “supporting farmers.” When times get tough, they toss out a measly bridge payment, which is just a one-time handout that barely covers a fraction of losses, while they print trillions, bail out Wall Street, and live high on the hog in the capital. The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, announced late last year with $12 billion spread across the country, sounds nice on paper. But for the average producer, it’s a pittance compared to the damage done by bad trade deals, inflation, and endless bureaucracy.
We work the land, feed the nation, and get treated like an afterthought. Meanwhile, the wolves in sheep’s clothing in DC protect their own. They redact documents inconsistently, mishandle victim privacy (even accidentally exposing survivors’ identities), and declare the matter closed without real accountability.
Farmers understand the stakes. When a predator threatens your herd, you act. When it threatens your flock, you act fast. When it threatens your children, there is no hesitation. The Epstein files make it impossible to ignore: the danger is in Washington. These people have shown they will prey on the vulnerable or shield those who do, all while making life harder for the rest of us.
It is time for rural America to stop hoping for reform from the same broken system. We protect our own. We remove threats. The predators have been exposed. Now we decide what comes next. No more excuses. No more waiting. The wolves have to go.