As much as Donald Trump and his Administration would like people to move on from Jeffrey Epstein, fixation with the convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker just won’t seem to go away, especially among the President’s own base.
Trisha Hope, a former diehard Trump supporter, posted on X that she was “done” with the President. His “lack of concern for the Epstein victims and his callus response” to a reporter’s question about it, “ends my relationship with him,” she said on July 8. “I will not support a man who denies justice to the victims who in this case are children and mocks the question.”
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Trump had responded incredulously after a reporter asked about a memo the Justice Department released earlier this month that asserted a much-anticipated “client list” did not exist and there would be no more disclosures related to the case.
Since the memo’s release, Hope’s dejection has been a familiar feeling among many in Trump’s MAGA base, which had long promoted conspiracy theories that Democrats and other powerful elites were suppressing incriminating evidence to do with Epstein, who died while detained in federal jail in 2019, only to be faced with the uncomfortable sense that Trump and his officials may now be doing the same.
“How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” Trump ally-turned-rival Elon Musk posted on X.
Trump himself—as well as the people he put in high-ranking positions at the Justice Department and FBI—had promised supporters that his Administration would release files on Epstein, and Attorney General Pam Bondi had even previously suggested that a client list was on her desk awaiting review.
Now Trump, Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino are facing significant blowback.
“The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump — and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me,” Patel posted on X, rebutting rumors that he would resign.
“There are really only two options,” conservative journalist Megyn Kelly posted on X. ‘1. There’s no huge undisclosed there there on Epstein, Bondi misled on it (until she didn’t) & Trump is quick to forgive a loyal soldier for being desperate to get on TV; or 2. There is a scandal that’s being covered up & it’s at his direction.”
“Pam, if you can’t do your job, we’ll find someone who will,” said right-wing political activist Jack Posobiec at a conservative conference in Florida on Saturday.
Trump doubles down on moving on
Amid calls for Bondi to resign or be dismissed, Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday: “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
But the President seemed to contradict the Justice Department memo that suggested there were no more files to be disclosed, instead claiming that there are files but that they were written by his rival predecessors and would only serve as a distraction.
“For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 ‘Intelligence’ Agents, ‘THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,’ and more? They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called ‘friends’ are playing right into their hands. Why didn’t these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didn’t they use it? They haven’t even given up on the John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. Files,” he posted. “No matter how much success we have had, securing the Border, deporting Criminals, fixing the Economy, Energy Dominance, a Safer World where Iran will not have Nuclear Weapons, it’s never enough for some people. We are about to achieve more in 6 months than any other Administration has achieved in over 100 years, and we have so much more to do. We are saving our Country and, MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, which will continue to be our complete PRIORITY. 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 defended Bondi, writing, “LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!” And he implored his supporters: “The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 — That’s what she is looking into as AG, and much more. One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
But Trump’s post seemed to do little to quell concerns.
Thousands of comments flooded the platform owned by Trump. “You promised us, Sir,” one said. “You said yourself they can’t hurt the MAGA movement, so no reason to obscure the files, photos of the perps in the videos, etc.,” said another. “WE elected you, expecting YOU to hold up to your end of the deal,” said another.
What could come next
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, told NBC News, “I support Pam as AG but think a Special Counsel has to be named to take the Epstein case over.”
Posobiec, the right-wing activist, told the Florida conference: “I will not rest until we go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files and every single client involved that was associated with this thing has an FBI agent at their door, on their phone, going after them the same way they went after the Jan. 6ers and the peaceful patriots and the praying grandmothers that were on those steps. That’s how we should go after every single person that was on the Epstein client list.”
Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressmember from California, posted on X that he planned to force his fellow lawmakers to go on record about whether they stand with the President that wants to move on or with those calling for more disclosures: “On Tuesday, I’m introducing an amendment to force a vote demanding the FULL Epstein files be released to the public,” he said.
A number of Trump’s allies in the House have expressed disappointment over the Administration’s handling of the Epstein case.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R, Fla.), who chairs the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, posted on X: “The American people deserve to know truth ref. Epstein, regardless of who it impacts. … The Taskforce and all of its members will be asking for that on behalf of the American people. The American people should be free to come to their own conclusions. The Truth will always come out one way or another.”
“It’s not wrong for people to continue to ask questions,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Ga.), a noted conspiracy theorist, said last week. “This case should not be closed.”
Conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler posted on X that Trump “should not underestimate the significance of this moment” and that he’s “losing goodwill by the day” over the Epstein fallout. “Trump is massively misreading his base on this one. It could cost him the midterms. People CARE about Epstein. Not only because of the grisly crimes against children, but because there’s evidence of a government cover up,” Wheeler said. “And now government officials are telling us to ignore the evidence in front of our eyes & believe them—without evidence. Nope. Not gonna do it. We voted for radical transparency & JUSTICE.”
“The Epstein files have become a political virus that Trump’s own movement created, and now it’s spreading beyond his ability to contain it,” Mike Madrid, a Republican political strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project political action committee, wrote on Substack. “In politics, as in life, sometimes the weapons you forge to destroy your enemies have a way of cutting both ways.”
