President Donald Trump is in unfamiliar territory — not lashing out at Democrats, however turning on his personal base.
Going through a wave of backlash over his administration’s abrupt resolution to close down the Epstein investigation, the president has begun publicly scolding the very supporters who as soon as believed he can be the one to show the “deep state.”
Trump railed towards followers who questioned why the Epstein recordsdata stay sealed in a prolonged put up on his social media platform Fact Social on Wednesday morning.
“Their new SCAM is what we are going to perpetually name the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have purchased into this ‘bulls‑‑‑,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump added. “They haven’t realized their lesson, and possibly by no means will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 lengthy years.”
However the injury was already achieved.
His supporters — lengthy animated by conspiracy theories that Trump would lastly unearth Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged community of highly effective abusers — are in open revolt. The response to the administration’s newest transfer has been swift and unforgiving.
Movies of livid MAGA loyalists burning their purple ‘Make America Nice Once more’ hats have flooded TikTok and X, with the viral hashtag #ReleaseTheFiles trending throughout a number of platforms. In a single viral clip, a person torches his hat in a yard grill whereas declaring, “I’m not gonna play with these anymore. MAGA hats are off… Burn child burn.”
@harryjsisson
They’re NOT pleased in any respect 07/12
♬ authentic sound – Harry
Others took to digital protest in inventive and sudden methods.
Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat and longtime Trump critic, dropped a full-blown parody ballad on Monday evening, mocking the previous president’s about-face with a twangy rendition of Jason Isbell’s “Dreamsicle.”
“Epstein died by suicide, imagine that and also you have to be blind,” Johnson sings within the viral video. “You’ve been telling us you’d launch the file, however the place are they?”
In one other verse, he belts: “Trump’s howling on the moon, launch the Epstein recordsdata quickly!”
Whereas some dismissed the tune as cringe, others praised Johnson’s guts and musical chops. “HE MISSED HIS TRUE CALLING,” one person posted on X. “WHAT IF THE DEEP STATE SEES THIS AND IS SO MOVED THEY JUST RELEASE THE FILES.”
However the frustration fueling these reactions is rooted in additional than simply inventive expression. For years, Trump and his allies stoked the idea that he can be the one to tug again the curtain on Epstein’s alleged trafficking community and its high-powered clientele. Throughout his 2024 marketing campaign, Trump and Vice President JD Vance repeatedly hinted they’d declassify the complete Epstein file.
“I’m inclined to launch all of it,” Trump stated at a rally final 12 months.
That anticipation peaked earlier this 12 months when Trump officers invited in style social media influencers to the White Home for what was billed because the “Part 1” launch of Epstein paperwork. However the stunt flopped. The binders distributed to the influencers contained no new info. Even Trump’s personal supporters known as it a “smokescreen.”
Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi solely poured gas on the fireplace when she claimed in February that Epstein’s “shopper listing” was “sitting on my desk proper now.” But by mid-July, Bondi abruptly introduced the case was closed — sparking mass outrage and deepening suspicions.
Trump is standing behind Bondi and is overtly keen to lose supporters over it.
“Let these weaklings proceed ahead and do the Democrats work, don’t even take into consideration speaking of our unimaginable and unprecedented success, as a result of I don’t need their assist anymore!”
The put up marked a shocking flip for Trump towards his personal loyalists as final week he opted to pin the entire drama on Democrats.
“For years, it’s Epstein, again and again,” Trump wrote on Fact Social on Saturday. “Why are we giving publicity to Recordsdata 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’ Brokers, ‘THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,’ and extra? They created the Epstein Recordsdata, similar to they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele File that they used on me, and now my so-called ‘mates’ are taking part in proper into their arms. Why didn’t these Radical Left Lunatics launch the Epstein Recordsdata?”
Final week Axios broke the information in regards to the FBI sending the Justice Division a memo saying that after an “exhaustive assessment” there was “no credible proof” Epstein “blackmailed distinguished people as a part of his actions. We didn’t uncover proof that might predicate an investigation towards uncharged third events.”
The memo solely intensified the disbelief.
Supporters who as soon as thought-about Trump the final greatest hope for full transparency now really feel betrayed.
“Typically I really feel like I’m fully shedding confidence in America,” one X person wrote. “However then any individual like Rep. Hank Johnson comes alongside and completely redeems themselves.”
Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender and disgraced financier, had deep ties to world leaders, billionaires, and celebrities earlier than his 2019 arrest on federal intercourse trafficking prices. He died by suicide in a Manhattan jail shortly thereafter — although many People have lengthy doubted the official story.
By July 15, seeming to cave to the outcry by his voters, Trump stated Bondi ought to launch “no matter she thinks is credible” on Epstein, based on ABC Information.
