Donald Trump ‘panics’ when asked if he'd declassify Epstein documents, netizens wonder ‘what is he afraid of?’

After being convicted in a hush money case, former US President Donald Trump recently appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend. The hosts, including Rachel Campos-Duffy, asked several questions to Trump such as whether he would declassify JFK and 9/11 files if elected to the White House in November.

The GOP leader's response went viral on social media as he appeared to flail when asked if he would declassify the documents of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was once friendly with Trump.

Trump responded by replying, "Yeah." Yeah, I would," before pausing and then retracing.

“I guess I would,” he added, looking panicked. “I think that less so because, you know, you don't know — you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.”

In January, a wave of legal documents from a lawsuit involving Epstein were disclosed, including images from an accuser and an exhibit including dubious charges she made about Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Richard Branson.

Trump's interview clip made it on the Daily Show

A video of the interview has gone viral on X (previously Twitter), and it has been posted multiple times by netizen who believe that Trump's claim people's live would be affected by "phony stuff" would make him appear guilty.

“Daily Show” correspondent Ronny Chieng also reacted to the video, stating that Trump grew very uncomfortable during the interview.

“Look at the panic in Trump’s eyes,” he stated, adding, “I’ve seen more relaxed people in the exit row of a Boeing flight.”

Chieng rejected Trump’s claim that the lives of individuals would be impacted and that he requires to save the people who might be named in the Epstein file.

“OK, he’s definitely in that file. He is in the Epstein files, he’s already like, ‘Look, there’s gonna be a lot of phony stuff in there ― names, pictures, my DNA ― you can’t believe any of it,’” he said.

Blasting Trump, he went on to recall that the former president had said “Obama was born in Kenya and Ted Cruz’s dad killed JFK”.

“Now all of a sudden he’s like, ‘Look, if you put some inaccurate information out there it could really destroy someone’s reputation, OK, we need to err on the side of caution here’,” Chieng said.

Here's what social media users have to say

Other people on X speculated that Trump's hesitation is due to his concern about his own name showing in the Epstein records, given how frequently the two were spotted together and the fact that the former president flew on the Epstein's private jet.

"A lot of phony stuff in those files.. He's already making excuses for his name being in the files," one wrote.

“Interesting how he gets in the word phony, he's grooming his base to reject the evidence he knows is there,” another reacted.

“Phony stuff in there… Is he already planning his defense,” a third chimed in, while one more wondered – “What dandy Don is afraid of??? Hmmmmmmm.”