NEW YORK (AP) — As his supporters erupt over the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the issue.
His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.
Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI abruptly walked back the notion that there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier’s trafficking of underage girls. Trump quickly defended Attorney General Pam Bondi and chided a reporter for daring to ask about the documents.
The online reaction was swift, with followers calling the Republican president “out of touch” and demanding transparency.
On Saturday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration — “all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
That did little to mollify Trump’s supporters, who urged him to release the files or risk losing his base. At least one follower responded to Trump’s post by saying it seemed as though the president was just trying to make the issue go away — but assured him it wouldn’t.
The political crisis is especially challenging for Trump because it’s one of his own making. The president has spent years stoking dark theories and embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only savior who can demolish the “deep state.”
Now that he’s running the federal government, the community he helped build is coming back to haunt him. It’s demanding answers he either isn’t able to or does not want to provide.
“The faulty assumption Trump and others make is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University. “The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”