Did you watch the ESPYs the other night?

What I love about the ESPYs—and sports in general—is that they allow you to throw your passion behind something that, in the grand scheme of things, matters very little. I mean, it matters to you. Your team is your team. Those fleeting minutes of joy or despair we feel when our team either captures our heart all over again or breaks it in a way that leaves permanent scarring on your psyche (F*** you, Keith Smart).

But we’re not deciding the fate of the free world, the future of democracy in America, or what outrageous lie, deception, or lack of empathy Donald Trump is peddling at this particular moment. The arguments we have about sports rarely fracture friendships or blow up family dinners. I mean, sure—when the Red Sox play the Yankees, you want to keep fans on opposite sides of the room and be ready for some creative swearing (“Every time Boone pulls a starter early, somewhere in Boston a bartender pours a free shot”).

The ESPYs allow us to celebrate the dedication, sacrifice, and performance required to be an elite athlete—someone who can leave you breathless and in awe. My favorite moment from this year’s show was Ilona Maher’s acceptance speech for “Best Breakthrough Athlete.” Here was someone the world hadn’t heard of a year ago. Her Olympic performance not only raised awareness for her sport, rugby, but also helped us redefine what a beautiful woman looks like. Her speech was as inspiring as she is. She said:

“My message stays the same: Strong is beautiful. Strong is powerful. Sexy is whatever you want it to be—and I hope all girls can feel like I feel… Sports does amazing things for a girl who didn’t understand why her body looked the way it did….Take up space. Pitch it faster. Run harder. Put another plate on the bar. And never tone it down.”

Her speech should be required viewing for every girl and young woman on the planet. Boys and men, you should pay attention too.

But something else caught my attention during this year’s ESPYs. Shane Gillis—hardly a paragon of “woke”—opened the evening with a few Donald Trump jokes. He quipped:

“Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The last time he staged a fight in DC Mike Pence almost died.”

“There was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted. Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move as a country and ignore that.”

The first thing that struck me was that a comedian hired to entertain at one of the most politically neutral awards shows in America was openly mocking Donald Trump. Noted. The second was that he made a joke about one of the most notorious pedophiles in American history—and his association with the current President of the United States.

Humor is a fickle beast. What strikes one person as funny might land as offensive to someone else with different life experiences. That’s not a reason to avoid the joke. I don’t believe comedians should be canceled for telling jokes that don’t land. If I don’t find it funny, I can choose not to listen.

But it did make me question whether Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein should be treated as a punchline.

Perhaps it’s my life experience that makes me particularly sensitive to this kind of humor. I was a victim of a pedophile when I was eight years old. A teenage boy in our neighborhood offered me the chance to join a “special club” and lured me to an abandoned farm building not far from our home. I won’t go into the details, but I like to think that with time, therapy, and conversation, I’ve moved beyond it.

What I discovered much later was that this person—who went on to become a Catholic priest—had dozens of victims, and his proclivities were known by others in our neighborhood and his own family. The fact that no one reported him or tried to stop him is the deepest scar I carry from it.

It led me to conclude that those who do nothing to stop a pedophile are as guilty as those who commit the crimes.

Which brings me back to Donald Trump and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Let’s start with what we know.

We know that Donald Trump is a sexual predator. This is not opinion—it’s legal fact. A jury of nine men and women, drawn not from liberal Manhattan but from upstate New York, found him liable. He had the best legal representation money could buy. The verdict was upheld by two appellate courts.

We know Trump had a close relationship with Epstein. Epstein said Trump was his best friend for over ten years. There are dozens of photographs of them together.

We know Trump knew Epstein liked underage girls. He acknowledged this when he said:

“I’ve known Jeff [Epstein] for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

We also know—courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Trump’s friend Rupert Murdoch—that Trump and Epstein shared many secrets. What those secrets were, and whether they involved underage girls, hasn’t been revealed. But the implication is clear: Trump knew the score and didn’t care.

We also have substantial circumstantial evidence suggesting Trump doesn’t want the truth about his relationship with Epstein to come out. Consider:

– He has consistently blamed Democrats for being at Epstein’s parties, accusing them of complicity in Epstein’s crimes. This is textbook Trump—accuse others of exactly what he’s guilty of.
– He ran on a promise to make Epstein’s client list public. His handpicked attorney general said she had the list on her desk. Then suddenly, the list no longer exists, and the files are too confidential to release? Something smells worse than a landfill on a hot August day.
– He’s thrown out more distractions than usual this week—health scares, Wall Street Journal lawsuits, Brazil tariffs, attacks on the Fed, and bizarre stories about Ted Kaczynski.

Here’s my point: There is no doubt Donald Trump knew what Epstein was doing with young girls. If he didn’t, he was willfully blind. If he truly didn’t know, why is he fighting so hard to keep the files sealed and launching frivolous lawsuits to keep the truth buried?

And if he did know—and did nothing to stop it—what does that say about Donald Trump as a person?

In my clearly biased eyes, it makes him just as guilty as the pedophile he enabled: Jeffrey Epstein.

So here’s my question. Whether you’re liberal, conservative, MAGA, or politically unaffiliated—do you really want a man who enabled pedophilia as President of the United States?

Talk amongst yourselves. But whatever conclusion you reach remember its no joke to the 42 million Americans who have been victims of child sexual abuse.