Donald Trump has reached a truly perilous moment in his second term as an American president.

And the key to his future might be in the hands of a British woman who is incarcerated in a Tallahassee jail, serving out a 20-year sentence for the sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls in collusion with Jeffrey Epstein.

If Ghislaine Maxwell testifies before Congress or if the reports are true that she has submitted to an interview request from federal prosecutors, she could be the one to finally bring down the scandal-struck American President.

If Miss Maxwell tells people what she knows and what she saw and if those statements are as damning as Trump's enemies suggest, then it could be game over for the President. For not even he could survive an allegation that he was a sexual buccaneer – polite term – who consorted with 15-year-old girls alongside his great pal Jeffrey Epstein.

The American public just wouldn't stand for it, not for one second. And when it comes to Trump, they have stood for a lot.

Until now it seemed there was no scandal that Trump could not survive, no tragedy he could not somehow twist into a triumph.

To date there have been two impeachments, four criminal indictments, a conviction on 34 felony counts, assorted troublesome lawsuits, the porn actress payouts, the notorious 'pussy grabbing' Access Hollywood tape – which recorded lewd conversations Trump had in 2005 – plus the business of those classified documents being stashed at Mar-a-Lago.

Then there was the assassination attempt last year that left the President bloodied but unbowed – and even more popular than before. Despite these heroics, Trump has been snowballed with more shame than any president in American history, but each disgrace that should have destroyed him has only made him stronger.

Until now.

Jeffrey Epstein with Ghislaine Maxwell smiling in a picture shown in court during the sex trafficking trial in which Maxwell was imprisoned in the US

Trump was elected on a promise – among many others, but this was a biggie – that he would 'drain the swamp' and reveal the truth that lurked in the so-called Epstein files; detailing who was who in the terrible, fetid orbit of the billionaire paedophile.

Trump's MAGA supporters love a conspiracy theory, and many believe that Epstein was murdered in jail to protect a network of powerful paedophiles. Also that a client list existed and that Trump would be the one who would and could expose it all and put all these bad people in jail where they belonged.

But instead of draining the swamp, President Trump has only obfuscated and pumped in more bilge. And now his supporters feel duped and betrayed.

Despite the President's promises to expose the corruption, everything changed when Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed earlier this year that Trump's own name was in the Epstein files.

Of course, this in no way suggests that Trump is a paedophile himself, but from that point on, Bondi & Trump – they sound like a cheap, coconut-scented aftershave – colluded in their exhortations to Americans to move on, dumbos! Nothing to see here, fingers in ears, tra la la.

However, no one in America is moving on. Not now, not ever.

And for the first time in his political life, Trump isn't fighting his usual enemies – the 'fake media', the 'deep state', the 'useless' Democrats and any random celebrities who dare to criticise him. He is fighting his own supporters.

The least MAGA supporters and the American electorate deserve is to know the truth about this unedifying chapter in their history. And Ghislaine Maxwell is one of the few people who can testify as to Trump's involvement in the Epstein inner circles.

Will she be called upon to give formal testimony? Surely her lawyers would only agree if Maxwell's participation resulted in an advantageous reflection upon her jail sentence, which seems fair enough.

No argument from me that Ghislaine did awful things, yet it seems preposterous that she is the only person in jail over this endless, bottomless sex scandal.

Here she is, this British woman carrying the burden of Epstein's sins; a socialite with a shady past who provided a handy scapegoat while all the men who colluded with Epstein in far more unsavoury ways are still walking free.

It suits the American elite that Maxwell is the public face of Epstein's guilt while many other participants and enablers have not been prosecuted – but is it fair? Of course not.

Jeffrey Epstein and now president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, 1997

And now what even the most trusting MAGA supporters want to know is, was Trump a participant in the Epstein immorality? And Ghislaine Maxwell is one of the few people who can provide answers.

What could happen next?

Maxwell might indeed condemn Donald Trump. Equally, she might indeed exempt him from all suspicion – and for the best of all reasons, because it simply is not true. She might indeed say that Trump is just not that kind of guy, that he came to Jeffrey's for a cup of tea and to practise his golf swing. Or she might indeed say nothing at all.

After all, Maxwell certainly kept quiet about Prince Andrew, who was infamously photographed in 2001 at her London home – in the presence of Epstein – with his arm around a 17-year-old called Virginia Giuffre.

Giuffre later alleged she had sex in Ghislaine's bath with the prince, who later paid her what was reported to be around £12 million in a lawsuit settlement while claiming he had never even met her.

In a tragic codicil, Giuffre committed suicide in April this year.

My God, the damage that has been done. The girls who have been ruined. And these terrible, terrible people trafficking and taking advantage of this bounty of young and troubled teenagers to indulge their darkest sexual satisfactions. Was Trump one of them?

If and when Ghislaine Maxwell wants to unburden herself of the secrets she keeps, we might soon know the answer. And following talks she had with Trump's Department of Justice officials yesterday afternoon, her lawyers said that she answered all the questions 'truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability.'

Whatever happens next, you can bet that Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump will each do what is in their own best interests. Yet something fundamental seemed to change this week - and along with it came the sense that Trump's incredible streak of luck might be beginning to run out.

Liam may need a lesson in love

A thousand congratulations to my dear friend Pamela Anderson, 58, who is dating that darling Irish actor Liam Neeson, still a twinkly, gorgeous rogue at the age of 73.

However, does the old boy know what he's letting himself in for? Pamela has been married at least five times – twice to the same man – while Liam tied the knot only once, with late wife Natasha Richardson.

I'm worried. Can't someone issue Liam with a hi-viz love vest and some good advice? Pam has married rock stars Tommy Lee and Kid Rock, poker player Rick Salomon (twice), producer Jon Peters (sort of) and her bodyguard Dan Hayhurst.

The former Baywatch star is eccentric, charming and a Julian Assange supporter who believes baking a loaf is like giving birth. She's also proof that if you keep your figure and your looks you can still get a fabulous man, no matter how bonkers you might be. Well done, Pammy!

Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson attend The Naked Gun premiere in London on July 22

Public must tell striking docs where to stick it

By the time you read this, resident doctors will have begun their five-day strike.

The medics are demanding a 29 per cent pay rise – on top of the 22 per cent rise Wes Streeting gave them last year – how very ungracious of them, not least because it makes the Health Secretary look stupid and gullible.

This is awful for everyone undergoing NHS treatment at the moment, but I do hope the long-suffering British public tell them where to stick it.

The doctors say they are being paid 22.6 per cent less in real terms than they were in 2009 – well join the club, darlings.

Millions are in the same leaky financial boat – and with no prospect of increasing their salary as their careers progress, unlike these grasping neophytes.

This strike will have long lasting repercussions to both in and outpatients, to the ill, to the worried, to the sick and tired. Treatments will be delayed and worries escalated as illness and poor health deepen. Estimates say the care of 100,000 patients will be affected, but does the ghastly Dr Dolphin – the head of the BMA union who is the kind of foam-flecked militant Corbynista who once compared Brexit to rape – care about any of that? Not enough, it seems.

The BBC has decided to air that last and final series of MasterChef featuring John Torode (nearly disgraced) and Gregg Wallace (utterly disgraced).

I think it's the right decision. The amateur contestants who took part in the show deserve their moment in the spotlight.

Moreover, I predict bumper viewing figures, for there is nothing the British love more that throwing a tablecloth on the banquet of shame and feasting on a juicy fall from grace. It's the same impetus that's put The Salt Path back at the top of the bestsellers' list. And I can't wait for it to begin. Ready, steady, cook!

Admit it, Ellen - you are a flipper

Ellen DeGeneres claims she is selling her Cotswold house after only one year because she needs more space for her animals – but why doesn't she just admit the truth?

Ellen, you are a serial flipper. You do it for the money and you have done it for years. Ellen and her wife Portia bought the Kitesbridge Farm property in Burford, did it up in marvellous style in double quick time and are now selling it for £22.5 million – making a cool £7 million profit in a year, a sum on which she won't have to pay capital gains tax as it is her primary residence. The energy, the smarts, the impeccable taste!

I went straight to Sotheby's property website to drink in the gorgeous details: the sage green velvet sofas, the exquisite carpentry, the sheepskin upholstery, the antique brass candlesticks, the art studio, the barbeque area, the gym and pool, the hangar, the bar above the five-car garage and the – swoon – laundry. 'It's a sanctuary of stillness and light,' reads the blurb. And it's also a way to make a big fat profit. Ellen, you are a stone slab, neutral toned, fixtures and fittings genius.

American TV personality Ellen DeGeneres with her wife actress Portia de Rossi in 2015

On Wednesday night I was trapped in a central London lift for nearly 40 minutes with eight other journalists. Oh, the horror. Can you imagine?

We had attended a screening of Park Avenue, a new film starring Fiona Shaw, at the Working Title headquarters in Marylebone. It didn't help that few of us liked the film and that some (me) were traumatised by the gratuitous scenes of full-frontal nudity featuring the 67-year-old actress.

Miss Shaw is a superb performer who is perfectly capable of depicting the vulnerability and indignity of old age and illness without a terrifying close-up of her front bottom, thanks all the same. And while I don't want to get into the safety issues of leaving nine journalists in an empty building to maroon themselves in a lift, what impressed me was the quiet humanity that evolved from our situation.

We were strangers, but all looked out for each other. That lifted my panicking spirits, but not as much as the two firemen who rescued us, both as handsome as Hollywood stars themselves. It was like a movie!

Fire Brigade protocol prohibits me saying which station they came from, but a million thanks to you both, you gorgeous hunks of heroes.