They already could have negotiated a win win deal. This is as much about projecting strength as it is anything else. Trump’s (and Miller’s) power is diminishing. He’s in lame duck territory and he’s basically bored of the affordability crisis. The Epstein files are part of it, but more than anything it’s about how he’s losing his grip on power. He’s trying to spark a flame that’s run out of fuel by rubbing two sticks of dynamite together, and it was probably Putin’s idea.