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Trump and MAGA turn on each other over Epstein files [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-07-14
President Donald Trump spent the weekend trying to get his most ardent supporters to stop complaining about how his administration has handled its probe of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
In a nearly 400-word rant on his Truth Social platform, Trump complained that his “‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals’” were going after Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue. Instead, he falsely claimed that files related to Epstein’s crimes were “written by” former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and “and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.”
“They created the Epstein Files,” he said, adding, “The Left is imploding! Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein.”
Trump then advocated for several debunked conspiracies, including the fantasy that he didn’t lose the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein in March 2017.
Trump implored his followers to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
The Trump administration is under fire after the Department of Justice said there was no “client list” for Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.
For years, Trump supporters have promoted the existence of a purported list, floating conspiracies and fantasies that prominent figures—particularly on the left and in the Democratic Party—were implicated in sexual crimes.
Now that the story has apparently imploded, the MAGA world is up in arms. Trump’s call for people to settle down led to a storm of negative responses on Truth Social, usually a safe space for Trump and his apologists.
As one supporter wrote, “We want the ELITE PEDOS exposed! You promised us that. Pam promised us that. Kash promised us that. Now it's OUR fault bc we want that promise fulfilled and call Pam out every time she lies? What else has she lied to us about?”
According to a Newsweek analysis, the post represents the first time Trump has been “ratioed” on Truth Social, where responses—largely negative—to the post outweighed the number of its likes and shares.
The fallout has been intense, especially given that Bondi originally claimed her office had secured information on Epstein and even distributed document binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to right-wing influencers. Most of the information contained in those binders was already public, however.
On Friday, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a former right-wing podcaster and long-time conspiracy theorist, took the day off of work, and reports have indicated that it was in protest of the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein issue.
Right-wing media, including figures on Fox News, have been openly complaining about the issue. Some have described the DOJ response as “bullshit” and said Bondi was “incompetent.”
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, shown in June 2024.
Trump does have some defenders who are buying his spin: Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for instance.
“President Trump now claims the Epstein list is real, but the Democrats have doctored it. This is the mother of all scandals,” Jones wrote on X.
For context, Jones is on the hook for millions after claiming that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was faked, a false conspiracy that led to the harassment of bereaving families. Jones has also claimed that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, and that the Obama administration used a “weather weapon.”
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California took a jab at the administration, writing on X on Saturday, “Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected?”
Khanna said he intends to force a House vote demanding a “FULL” release of the Epstein files.
Republicans have embraced conspiracy culture for decades, and in choosing Trump as their leader, they have put a conspiracy theorist in the most important leadership position in the country—and world. Now their support of unsubstantiated nonsense is coming back to bite them.
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