Epstein controversy proves that it is possible for Donald Trump to lose supporters

For years now, releasing the Epstein files has been one of the top goals of Trump’s MAGA base. I’ll try to briefly explain why:

Roughly ⅓ of Republicans who hold favorable views of Trump are QAnon believers. QAnon is the far-right conspiracy movement which holds that a cabal of Satanic, pedophilic, child-sex-trafficking elites—made up mostly of Democrats and celebrities—rules the world and the “Deep State,” and that Donald Trump is secretly fighting to defeat them and bring them to justice. In Jeffrey Epstein, believers had proof that ultra-wealthy, well-connected child sex traffickers do exist—at least one of them. 

Epstein died in prison in August of 2019. His death was ruled a suicide, but Americans across the political spectrum were skeptical, declaring, “Epstein didn’t kill himself!”

Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted at the end of 2022 for multiple felonies involving aiding Epstein in trafficking and sexually abusing minors. (While she was in jail, Donald Trump wished her well repeatedly.) 

Maxwell’s conviction and Epstein’s death only served to whet the appetite of the MAGA faithful. They wanted anyone and everyone Epstein may have trafficked young girls to to be exposed and punished. (To be fair, this is an honorable desire. Who wouldn’t want pedophiles, especially rich and powerful ones, brought to justice?)

Epstein’s “little black book” of contacts was published back in 2015 by Gawker, and revealed a lot of famous names, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Alec Baldwin, and Rupert Murdoch, among others. None of the people listed in his contact book have been charged with crimes related to Epstein. As I write this, it’s unclear to me whether there is any solid evidence of Epstein trafficking girls to third parties. Some of the victims have claimed he did, but my understanding is that investigations have not turned up good evidence. 

But my conclusions aren’t important. MAGA world—the voters, the politicians, the influencers— all agreed that Epstein trafficked minors to other powerful men, he had a list of their names, and bringing them to light was imperative. The following is only a tiny sampling of direct quotes from prominent Republicans made after Epstein’s death and before the 2024 election:

 “What the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can’t get the list?…Put on your big boy pants, and let us know who the pedophiles are.” -Kash Patel (now director of the FBI), Dec 2023

Trump’s win in 2024 turbocharged his base’s (and his own administration members’) excitement about finally uncovering the truth, hidden for so long by the dastardly Democrats. 

In February of 2025, Senator Marsha Blackburn sent a letter to newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, reminding him that he’d promised to work with her to release the Epstein files, and telling him, “…it is paramount that the FBI provide full transparency to the American people and immediately release the complete, unredacted records in this case.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi sent shockwaves of excitement through MAGA in February of this year when she claimed Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now.” 

Later that month, 15 right-wing influencers were invited to the White House and given binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” in a meeting attended by President Trump, Vice President Vance, and FBI Director Patel. Their excitement soon fizzled, however, when the binders turned out to contain almost entirely old information that was already public. 

Next major event on the timeline: June 6, 2025. Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s bromance came to a fiery and very public end, climaxing with this jaw-dropping tweet from Musk:

(Musk has since deleted the tweet.) 

One month later, the Department of Justice released an undated, unsigned memo which claims they’ve done a thorough review of all the Epstein evidence and come to the following conclusions:

1. No third parties are guilty of any wrongdoing.
2. There is no client list. 
3. Epstein didn’t blackmail anyone.
4. Epstein committed suicide.
5. No further disclosures are forthcoming.

The memo ends by giving a link where they say the “full raw” video feed from Epstein’s cell on the night of his death can be seen. 

This memo sent shockwaves of a very different sort through MAGA world. For once, they were not going to simply accept and parrot whatever the administration said. 

The day after the DOJ released their memo, a reporter asked Pam Bondi to clarify some questions about Epstein. Before she could answer, Trump jumped in and berated the reporter for asking about Jeffrey Epstein.

As if that reaction wasn’t insulting enough to the MAGA faithful, four days later Trump made a lengthy post on his Truth Social site, addressed to his supporters, in which he defended Pam Bondi and complained about the continued focus on Epstein. He blames “selfish people” for trying to hurt his “PERFECT” administration over Epstein—”somebody that nobody cares about.” He goes on to bizarrely claim that the Epstein files were “written by” his greatest enemies list: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Biden administration. 

On the same day, his FBI Director, Kash Patel—after years of very publicly insisting that there is an Epstein client list and that it wasn’t being released because of the powerful men on it—posted this tweet:

Q: How do you get people to let go of a conspiracy you’ve spent years convincing them is true?

A: It’s too late. You can’t. 

Adding even more fuel to the conspiracy flames, WIRED magazine revealed on July 15 that the “full raw” footage of Epstein’s prison video released by the DOJ was in fact missing about 2 minutes and 53 seconds, and consisted of “two stitched-together clips.”

The Attorney General and the Justice Department getting caught in multiple lies, combined with the President’s demands that everyone stop talking about the case has piqued the interest of folks who, until now, took this story at face value. 

THEN, on Monday of this week, Democrats on the House Rules Committee added an amendment that would have forced Pam Bondi to make the Epstein files public—the very thing Republicans have been demanding for years! Republicans voted against the measure, blocking it. The next day, Tuesday the 16th, Democrats again tried to force the release of the Epstein files, this time in the full House. Republicans blocked their release again: the measure failed by a vote of 211-210. Not one Republican voted in favor. 

So, to recap: 

• The current Attorney General, FBI Director, FBI Deputy Director, Republican Members of Congress, and the President’s son have loudly insisted for years that Democrats were hiding the Epstein files—specifically his client list—and that justice and the American people demanded they be made public.
• The Attorney General affirmed she had the client list on her desk. 
• The White House handed out “Epstein Files: Phase 1” binders to right-wing influencers, clearly implying that more information would be forthcoming. 
• The world’s richest man, one of Trump’s closest advisors and the head of Trump’s newly created federal agency, who’d had unprecedented access to the computer systems of the federal government for the past five months, Elon Musk, said the reason the Epstein files had not yet been released was because Trump is in them. 
• DOJ abruptly says there is no client list, Epstein killed himself, and they won’t be releasing any further information. Case closed. 
• Trump angrily demands people stop talking about the Epstein files, bizarrely claims they were written by Obama, Hillary, and Biden (all people who were out to get him), and says only “bad people,” “weaklings,” and his “PAST supporters” will continue talking about Epstein. 
• House Republicans blocked the release of the Epstein files twice in two days.

This leaves MAGA caught between two (and only two) very uncomfortable possibilities: Either Trump, his entire Cabinet, and every Republican in DC are all engaged in a massive coverup to protect pedophiles, or those same people have been lying to them for years. 

I, myself, am agnostic on the issue. Before Trump’s recent, ongoing, angry tantrum about the case, I figured most of the rumors swirling around the whole Epstein saga were right-wing fabrications. But the President is giving off major “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” vibes, and behaving exactly as I imagine he’d behave if he knew that he appears in the Epstein files in an incriminating fashion. Short of real evidence, though, we have only circumstantial observations to go by.  

“I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.” – Jeffrey Epstein, in recorded interview

“I’ve known Jeff 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.” – Donald Trump 

What we can do: I think we should all follow the advice of Trump’s Deputy Director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, from back in 2023: “Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal, please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this.”