Donald Trump Is Visibly Upset With His MAGA Base Over Epstein “List” Fallout

One week after the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a document stating that there was never a Jeffrey Epstein “client list” — a supposed list of child sex predators and traffickers that is the center of a conspiracy theory that right-wingers have promoted for years — President Donald Trump, who benefited from that conspiracy theory, has expressed frustration that his MAGA base isn’t moving on.

The refusal of Trump’s base to believe the DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s newest assessment of the Epstein files is visibly frustrating the president, who has lashed out at his followers on social media and derided reporters for questioning the new narrative.

Believers in the Epstein “client list” conspiracy theory allege that Epstein, a financier and former friend of Trump’s, used the list as political leverage against public figures, including liberal and left-leaning individuals. Members of Trump’s own administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, played a role in spreading the theory prior to assuming their posts.

Trump, who was president when Epstein was arrested and subsequently died in jail, wasn’t a direct promoter of the conspiracy theory. But he did discuss it in interviews, including in September 2024, at the height of the presidential campaign season.

“I’d certainly take a look at it,” Trump said in regards to releasing the files relating to Epstein, adding that he’d be “inclined” to release such a list and would have “no problem” with doing so. He also called it “very interesting” that the supposed list had not yet been made public, implying that the Biden administration was purposefully keeping the names hidden.

Earlier this month, however, the DOJ announced that there is no Epstein “client list,” that there was “no credible evidence” of a blackmail conspiracy, and that Epstein indeed died by suicide while in jail, contradicting years of questions regarding the official narrative that Trump had benefited from.

The document is also a stark departure from what Bondi had stated earlier this year. In an interview in February, when asked if an Epstein list would be released, Bondi responded affirmatively, saying it was on her desk waiting for review.

Last week, however, she claimed that her response did not mean that the client list was real — instead, she was referring to files relating to Epstein, she said.

Since that time, Trump’s supporters have taken issue with the DOJ’s conclusions, with some revolting against him on social media. Some of Trump’s allies in Congress, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), have also expressed skepticism over the administration’s new line.

“I have to be honest, it’s just a red line that it crosses for many people,” Greene said in an interview on Monday.

The loyal MAGA base Trump relied on for so many years now appears to be “genuinely fractured,” read an assessment of the situation from Politico published this week.

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Days after the DOJ document was released, a reporter asked Bondi to comment during a cabinet meeting at the White House. Trump, visibly upset over the question, interjected.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time?” he asked.

A few days later, Trump told his base it was time to move on.

“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,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Trump peddled a new conspiracy theory within that same post, baselessly claiming that several figures (including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others) had written the Epstein files themselves in an effort to hurt him.

Let’s “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” Trump added.

Democrats are pouncing on the situation. The Democratic National Committee (DNC), for example, has created a new profile on X to remind viewers daily that the supposed Epstein list hasn’t been released.

Tim Hogan, the DNC’s senior adviser for messaging, has called for the Trump administration to be more transparent. Said Hogan:

Trump administration officials are either lying about the file and keeping it covered up to protect themselves, or they lied about its existence in a shameless political ploy to get elected. Either way, it is disgusting, and they have to be held accountable.

Democratic lawmakers have also spoken out about the matter.

“Either [Trump] and his acolytes fueled the rumors of the significance of these Epstein files to help his campaign, or something is there! Put up or Shut up,” wrote Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas).

“Democrats didn’t put the Jeffrey Epstein thing into the public domain,” Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries said at a press conference on Monday. “This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.”

The fracturing of Trump’s MAGA base is somewhat evident in recent polls.

According to a new Economist/YouGov poll published Tuesday morning, 79 percent of all U.S. voters want the Epstein files to be publicly released, including 83 percent of voters who backed Trump in 2024. Among those voters, there appears to be skepticism with the Trump administration’s handling of the files, with nearly 6 in 10 (59 percent) of them saying the government is covering up evidence.

Trump’s approval rating among those who voted for him last year is still high, with 84 percent backing him and 13 percent disapproving. But that’s a shift from the start of this summer, when 87 percent of his voters approved of his job performance and only 10 percent didn’t — and it’s a huge shift from the start of this year, when, in early February, 92 percent of Trump voters approved of his job performance and only 5 percent said they disapproved.