Trump makes it personal with MAGA over Epstein
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
President Trump in the Oval Office on Monday. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
MAGA is recoiling at President Trump's increasingly personal attacks on his followers over Jeffrey Epstein, opening the most bitter divisions yet between the president and the GOP base.
Why it matters: MAGA has at times grumbled over Trump's handling of foreign affairs, immigration and other sporadic issues. But the president's growing irritation with his supporters' Epstein theories and his adamant insistence that they're illegitimate is widening the most significant rift yet.
What they're saying: MAGA did not take kindly to Trump's latest post Wednesday, which included calling his followers' theories a "hoax." He also claimed his "PAST supporters" were doing Democrats' bidding by discussing Epstein instead of his recent policy wins.
- "By continuing to go to war with the online MAGA class, he only continues to keep his unpopular stance on the issue front of mind," one right-wing influencer told Axios. "It's definitely become an inflection point online."
- As one MAGAworld operative put it: "Villainizing your base for caring about the thing you told them to care about is never a good strategy."
Zoom in: Sources suggested to Axios that Trump was fundamentally missing MAGA's commitment to Epstein disclosures, and they said belittling that stance risked alienating even his most committed supporters.
- Calls for a special counsel spiked Wednesday, with sources telling Axios that it would take the launch of an independent investigation into Epstein's operation and supposed intelligence ties to satiate the base.
- Raheem Kassam, The National Pulse's editor-in-chief, said: "President Trump sat for interviews during the campaign and committed to releasing more Epstein files. If he's changed his mind, he should at least be willing to explain to his voters why."
- "If he maintains that he no longer wants the support of those who want more information, his terms may be acceptable to more people than he realizes."
The big picture: The administration has been torn over how to course-correct since its handling of evidence in the convicted sex offender's case caused an uproar among its base last week.
- MAGA for years has been convinced Epstein was murdered in an attempt to protect supposedly rich and powerful clients, and suggestions to the contrary have already set off multiple convulsions.
Catch up quick: Trump has waffled in recent days between expressing surprise at his base's fixation on Epstein and vowing to release details on the financier's sex trafficking operation and death.
- The president on Tuesday said Attorney General Pam Bondi should release "credible evidence" — comments that served as a steam valve for MAGA and that he repeated in the Oval Office Wednesday.
- Trump's Truth Social post spiked the temperature again Wednesday morning.
Between the lines: Few things are more foundational to MAGA than fighting against the "deep state," and Trump and his allies spun up the right over Epstein for years.
- Now, Trump's pushing the base to not care so much about a microcosm of a singular concern for MAGA, and the base is pushing back.
- "This is a proxy for Trump getting owned by the deep state," the MAGAworld operative said.
Reality check: There have been divides between Trump and MAGA before — including on Ukraine and Iran — that ultimately did not drive supporters away. And this movement remains reluctant to break from the only person who has ever served as its leader.
- "Time and again, we see forces aligned against President Trump concocting narratives designed to try to split his historic America First movement, but those supposed divisions always fail to materialize. At what point is this the boy who cried wolf?" Breitbart News Washington bureau chief Matt Boyle told Axios.
Go deeper:
