Why Jeffrey Epstein Could Break MAGA

President Trump's refusal to pursue Epstein is not only tearing apart the MAGA movement, it's compromising everything

Jeffrey Epstein with future President Donald Trump; source

President Donald Trump is acting like a cornered tiger. Weeks after his Department of Justice announced on July 7th that there is no Jeffrey Epstein client list, Trump has resorted to his typical playbook in the face of pressure, this time from his own MAGA supporters. He has attacked, denied, diverted, and then escalated attacks some more.

Since July 7th, President Trump has pleaded with his MAGA base to move on from Epstein. When that didn’t work, he accused former President Barack Obama and the Clintons of treason. Then he demanded that Coca-Cola replace its high fructose corn syrup with sugar. Only to follow that with the release of thousands of documents — not of the Epstein files — but of the Martin Luther King Jr. files, which have revealed almost nothing new about that tragedy.

Republican lawmakers may even rename the Kennedy Center Opera House in D.C. after President Trump’s wife, Melania.

When none of those diversions worked and many MAGA supporters and Congressmen continued to call for the full release of the Epstein files — which Trump’s own Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said were “on her desk” — President Trump escalated his attacks. He called for an investigation into former President Barack Obama (without any evidence) and suggested that he might need to be arrested (sharing an AI-generated video of Obama getting arrested in the Oval Office).

All of these efforts demonstrate one thing — President Trump is trying to do anything he can to move the country on from Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and child trafficker, whom President Trump already had many known and documented interactions with when he won reelection in 2024. These included flying on Epstein’s plane at least 7 times and attending numerous social events with him. Since July 7th, it’s come to light that President Trump also contributed a “bawdy” letter to Epstein’s 50th birthday party book and invited Epstein to his wedding to Marla Maples.

Epstein was hardly a mere acquaintance to President Trump.

Which may be the reason why President Trump has lashed out more aggressively as the Epstein walls have enclosed around him. In addition to potential personal implications, he knows how existential Epstein is to his political survival and MAGA legacy.

For years, Trump and his most ardent MAGA supporters have claimed Epstein was murdered to protect rich and powerful men who were abusing children. These claims have ranged in extremes from allegations of a government cover-up to beliefs by QAnon that President Trump was leading the charge as “Q” to combat a secret ring of cannibalistic child molesters.

Pizzagate was not a temporary feeling in the MAGA world. While many Trump supporters may not have agreed with its literal extremes — that a cabal was actually operating from the D.C. pizza shop in question — many agreed with its underlying themes that groups of elites are criminals and must be brought to justice.

This is why the Jeffrey Epstein scandal runs deep in MAGA circles. Former MAGA influencers, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, gained massive followings largely for pushing anti-establishment Epstein theories. Many of these theories incriminated top Democrats like the Clintons. Their MAGA followers believed them, and both Patel and Bongino rode that wave to jobs in the current Trump administration.

President Trump’s sudden reversal on Epstein is a betrayal of the trust many of his MAGA supporters invested in him. The resulting backlash illustrates that they don’t simply have affection for President Trump the man, but also what he represents — a swamp drainer who fights evil forces embedded in the U.S. government. He’s supposed to reveal and fix some of their darkest beliefs about America.

It doesn’t get much worse than accusing top Democrats and other elites of operating a cabal of child molesters. If that’s true, it’s easier to believe that many of those same people might be responsible for other atrocities and conspiracies like stealing the 2020 U.S. election or the Russia hoax.

Imagine the Epstein files as the center of a web or the foundation of a MAGA skyscraper. If the conspiracies around Epstein turn out to be false as President Trump’s Department of Justice currently claims, it compromises everything else. Reversing course so suddenly on a central anti-establishment allegation doesn’t assuage the conspiracies that President Trump and MAGA influencers have spread for years. It intensifies them.

It suggests that the person MAGA anointed to reveal dark truths about American society is potentially the same person covering them up. Or worse, that he’s directly implicated, perhaps even criminally, which would result in a tale of epic Shakespearean proportions.

It would be dramatically ironic if the man elected to stop a dangerous cabal of child molesters is actually involved in its coverup. The tale reaches its dramatic climax if that same man was actively part of the alleged cabal itself.

President Trump gives rise to these theories the longer he obfuscates and attempts to divert attention from the Epstein files. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and other MAGA Congressmen called for Trump’s election in 2024 in large part because “Americans deserve to know why Epstein didn’t kill himself.”

For Trump to renege on that promise now while more allegations and connections between him and Epstein come to light, it not only inspires more conspiratorial thinking, it threatens the entire MAGA movement. Speaker Mike Johnson knows this, which is why he cut short the week’s legislative business and sent the House home early for summer recess. He wanted to avoid having to hold votes on releasing the Epstein files.

Regardless of what President Trump does or says, or how much Speaker Johnson and others delay addressing the issue, one reality of the Epstein story remains constant for MAGA — it’s a key indictment against America’s elites. It’s a key part of the populist fervor that catapulted President Trump to the White House last year.

As Mike Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser who was forced to resign after perjuring himself, said in a social media post:

“[President Trump] please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away. If the administration doesn’t address the massive number of unanswered questions about Epstein, especially the ABUSE OF CHILDREN BY ELITES (it is very clear that abuse occurred), then moving forward on so many other monumental challenges our nation is facing becomes much harder.”

Flynn said it best — if the Epstein files are not released to the satisfaction of the MAGA base, everything else “becomes much harder.” It compromises his supporters’ trust in the man they elected to fight the elites and the establishment. Any attempt to move on from Epstein is a move in favor of the establishment, not against it.

President Trump used Epstein and other anti-establishment allegations to gain power and win reelection. Now that he has it, he must deliver on core promises like releasing the Epstein files or risk compromising the entire MAGA movement. Anyone who previously thought that MAGA only survives on a cult of personality around President Trump simply needs to see his Truth Social post where he pleaded with his supporters to move on from Epstein.

It was the first time in social media history that President Trump was “ratioed” by his own supporters, accumulating more comments than likes. Perhaps that is the first sign that this scandal may be different from all the others.

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On a lighter, tastier note, I’m back from our Asia adventures and will be posting regularly over the next few weeks about some of the experiences. Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and especially YouTube if you’re interested. Here’s the latest video on the wonderful Cha Chaan Tengs in Hong Kong. We also did a suitcase review:

Thanks for watching, reading, and being here.