WASHINGTON — The missing Jeffrey Epstein files triggered MAGA and me.

Hopefully, Washington correspondents will have a rude awakening too.

Lurid details about the late Palm Beach sex trafficker — and links to Donald Trump before he ran for president — are bubbling up.

Only now. This “news” is old.

Next to the relentless reporting on Watergate by young Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the coverage of Trump is lackadaisical and late to the game. The Epstein story languished for a decade.

“Just the facts, ma’am” is no way to cover a wayward president. Critical queries are in order, in general.

The public needs to know more about Trump in advance — not just his plans, tweets and threats but their upshots. The press also needs to place him in past context.

Few presidents deviated so wildly from the role. From sending a mob to storm the Capitol, to vulgar speech, to defiant cabinet choices, to personal enrichment, the presidential press is bombarded.

Some are numb, some are confounded. But they are pretty tamed by the beast.

Trump creates a state of confusion. The press struggles, as does bewildered Europe, with his tariff whims.

And the breaking points keep coming. An editorial in The New York Times stated that gutting public media would hurt civic health. This came after Congress voted to do just that.

Now you tell us.

Another was a Washington Post story that found — not until late June — that Trump’s Justice Department lawyers ignored court orders in 57 lawsuits. “Legal experts said the pattern of conduct is unprecedented.”

Late June? It’s late July.

The first few hit like lightning bolts. Mass deportations and mass firings of tens of thousands of skilled federal workers struck with nary a timely peep of protest in print.

Nobody signed up for those things, not even Trump’s base. His harsh raids go far, far beyond rounding up migrants with a crime record.

The Post and the Times meekly covered DOGE — a hasty acronym for a department of government efficiency — as Trump and Elon Musk fed federal grants and jobs into the “wood chipper.”

Closing and cutting agencies that Congress created is a sign of the Trumpian times. We’ll live with consequences for a long time, in medicine, climate, weather and losses in the floods.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my field. This is speaking from that place.

The American people get news stories piecemeal, missing the larger picture of a president at war with America’s core values, such as fairness.

Trump’s tax breaks for the rich and health care slashes for the poor are now law, though smart people knew little of the fine print.

So the country slouches toward a crisis waiting to be borne.

The press covers tragedy of the absurd with a straight face.

For now, the MAGA movement Trump started is mad at him for the first time.

This shall pass.

Yet, for once, Trump’s conspiracy claims aimed at leading Democrats (e.g., Bill Clinton) curdled like milk — or blood — on his own suit.

Ironically, the newspaper defying Trump is the conservative Wall Street Journal. Trump sued the newspaper for publishing a lewd letter he denied writing to Epstein.

He further banned a Journal reporter from his trip to Scotland this week.

Epstein died in prison in 2019. The press had many years to investigate Trump’s shared fondness for partying with “beautiful women,” as Trump once put it.

The Fourth Estate, the last pillar of democracy, is still standing — but could crumble.

At the same time, Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential branches are all under Trump’s thumb.

That leaves us to sit on the president’s neck, on watch for his nefarious nature and actions.

That is no easy feat. Trump’s temper and fury at “evil” questions are always lurking. The White House press corps is near silenced.

They didn’t protest much when Trump banned The Associated Press for using the Gulf of Mexico, not his new name: the Gulf of America.

In a new ploy, Trump is demanding that the Washington NFL team, the Commanders, change its name back to the Redskins. Will that distract and calm his MAGA critics?

Our work is for an informed citizenry. That part is your job.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.