President Trump is facing backlash from his base after defending his administration's review of the so-called Epstein files and downplaying his supporters' distrust in the process.
Last week, a two-page memo from the Justice Department and the FBI said they found no evidence that the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed powerful people or kept a "client list" and reiterated that he died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019.
But Epstein's death and imprisonment have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, including a prominent belief amplified by numerous right-wing figures who now serve in the Trump administration that the sex trafficker's death is proof, in part, that the government is run by shadowy figures out to undermine Trump.
Three of those administration officials, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, have been at odds with each other over the handling of the Epstein case and subsequent backlash from Trump supporters and conspiracists who do not believe the government's narrative.
Bondi drew fire for an interview earlier this year where she said Epstein's client list was "sitting on my desk right now to review," the same month she handed right-wing influencers binders marked "The Epstein Files: Phase 1" that mostly contained largely-redacted documents that had already been made public.
Patel and Bongino, longtime critics of the agency they lead, also received threats from far-right conservatives after a joint interview on Fox News in May where they said Epstein's death was in fact a suicide.
Over the weekend, Trump posted a lengthy message on his Truth Social website that defended Bondi, told his supporters to "not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about," and spread baseless conspiracies that the so-called files were created by Democrats to go after him.
"What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals?,'" Trump wrote. "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."
But the attempt to move on from Epstein undermines one of the MAGA movement's core beliefs: that sending Trump back to the White House would uncover evidence of a "deep state" controlling the government and protecting criminals, pedophiles and other unsavory characters.
'I'd certainly take a look at it'
Trump has embraced the "deep state" framing throughout his last decade in politics, garnering raucous applause from supporters who believe the federal government, Democrats and even some Republicans are working to undermine his goals.
A frequent refrain in campaign speeches is a promise to "demolish the deep state," and on more than one occasion Trump has addressed questions about the Epstein files.
In a September 2024 podcast interview with Trump, host Lex Fridman said it was "very strange for a lot of people" that a list of "clients" who went to Epstein's island was not made public.
"It's very interesting, isn't it?," Trump said. "It probably will be [made public], by the way, probably."
Trump added that "I'd have no problem with it."
A few months earlier in June 2024, Fox and Friends host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump if he would declassify the Epstein files.
"Yeah, I would. I guess I would," he said, before adding that he would be less likely "because you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world."
In that interview, Trump also said it would be "interesting to find out what happened" with Epstein's death, which prior FBI reviews concluded was a suicide in August 2019.
Participating in the type of cover-up his supporters decry
The backlash over the Trump administration's memo and the president's defense of Bondi has been swift and intense from supporters who have given him wide latitude in the past. It remains to be seen if the outrage will have any long-term effects on his base of support.
At Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in Florida over the weekend, multiple speakers ripped into the DOJ memo including Tucker Carlson.
"The fact that the U.S. government, the one that I voted for, refused to take my question seriously and instead said, 'Case closed. Shut up, conspiracy theorist,' was too much for me," he said. "And I don't think the rest of us should be satisfied with that."
Carlson has espoused the conspiracy theory that Epstein was killed in prison and was working for intelligence agencies to blackmail powerful people, and in his remarks notably did not criticize Trump directly.
"I think that these people — and I don't know, for whatever reason, there could be reasons — but I don't think they're telling us the truth about Epstein," conservative podcaster Brandon Tatum said to the TPUSA crowd. "I think that that guy was involved in something nefarious that implicates a whole lot of people. And my guess is that a whole lot of people may happen to be some of our allies and some people that we don't want to have a bad relationship with."
It's not just loyal Trump supporters blasting the administration's response to the Epstein memo. During last week's episode of his "Flagrant" podcast, titled in part "Why Trump is Covering for Epstein," comedian Andrew Schulz sarcastically said he and others with questions about Epstein were "stupid."
"I think what is enraging people right now is it's insulting our intelligence," Schulz said, while he and his co-hosts were wearing hats made from tinfoil. "Like obviously, the intelligence community is trying to cover it up. Obviously the Trump administration is trying to cover up, something changed because they ran on this idea of exposing it."
Democrats, too, are attacking Trump over the memo and its fallout, highlighting Trump's prior interactions with Epstein and a jury finding him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.
"Did anyone really think the sexual predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?," Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff said at a campaign kickoff over the weekend, while some House Democrats are planning a long-shot resolution to call for the release of "all files related to the Epstein case."
Still, others have found a way to move on – or deflect from Trump having any blame. Charlie Kirk said Monday on his show after the Turning Point event that he didn't need to relitigate the "messaging fumble" and that he trusted the administration.
"Honestly, I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being," he said. "I'm gonna trust my friends in the administration, I'm gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, ball's in their hands."
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