The Bulwark’s Will Sommer broke down the different MAGA factions reaction to the Epstein scandal. The following are just short excerpts. It’s worth subscribing to read the full explanation. (It’s worth subscribing for a lot of reasons, actually.)
- The “Get Over It crowd”
If Trump’s remarks before his cabinet meeting on Tuesday about getting over Epstein didn’t send a clear enough message to his allies, his farcical allegation over Truth Social on Saturday that Barack Obama had somehow tampered with or even fabricated the Epstein files made it clear that he’s not reopening the Epstein investigation and folks should give it up.That prompted some of the right’s biggest names to, finally, fall in line.
Charlie Kirk had been pimping this hard and then, after getting a call from the president himself, he came out and said that he wouldn’t talk about it anymore because he trusts his “friends in the White House.”
Daddy spanked him.
2. Epstein Dead-Enders
It’s not so easy for everyone to move on from Epstein. That’s because, for Trump supporters, the Epstein case has come to symbolize something that goes far beyond the mysterious rich sex criminal and his circle of friends.
They see it instead as the most notorious example of a permanent theme in American society: the elites getting one over on the common man. For this part of Trump world, Epstein has come to stand for everyone and everything that screws the little guy: mass immigration to depress wages, housing unaffordability, and much more. If the elites can keep abusing girls with impunity, what else can they get away with?
This is the biggest faction at least for now.
3. The Show-Trial Compromisers
The Trump administration and its still-reliable culture war allies seem to be offering the president’s angry supporters a compromise. Rather than prosecuting the pedophiles allegedly on some Epstein list, maybe instead we could launch trumped-up cases against some unrelated national security and law enforcement officials?
On Sunday, reliably pro-Trump website Just the News reported that the FBI under Patel is operating a sprawling probe aimed at participants in a so-called “grand conspiracy” of government weaponization. The remit of the investigation (and the special prosecutor whose appointment is being considered) comprises an impressive variety of government actions that Trump supporters have been mad about—in some cases for the better part of a decade. The grievances touch on everything from the failure to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her email server to former special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal cases against Trump.
Steve Bannon fits into this group. He wants a Special Prosecutor — to also look into the 2020 election and Russia, Russia, Russia.
4. The Cabal Accommodationists
Once, QAnon believers urged one another to put blind faith in Trump and “trust the plan,” knowing in their hearts that he would take on and ultimately defeat the pedophile cabal.
Now, some of Trump’s media allies are saying their audiences should “trust the plan” and leave the powerful cabal alone. For example, comedian Tim Dillon suggested that if Trump pushed further on the Epstein case, the cabal would kill him.
5. The Oblivious
No one has more badly misjudged the current Epstein moment than longtime Trump-world creature Roger Stone, who gave a speech at the TPUSA conference while dressed in his customary Al Capone-chic. Stone told the audience about a conversation he’d purportedly had with a reporter who kept asking Stone, “What about Epstein?” In Stone’s recounting, he steadfastly ignored the question and touted Trump policy accomplishments. As Stone talked up the Big Beautiful Bill and the Golden Dome missile shield, the reporter just kept bringing up the infamous pedophile.
He thought he was showing that this is just a media creation but the audience kept screaming “what about Epstein?!” Ooops.
These fault lines are new and perhaps they will end up widening and being permanent. That would be a good thing. But I think one of the unappreciated factors in all this is that Trump is a lame duck president and MAGA cultists are starting to think about their roles going forward without him. If this movement is to survive (IOW, their money train) a lot of them have to find a way to keep their piece of the MAGA movement without Daddy. This could be the first stirrings of that entirely predictable phenomenon — as only MAGA would do it.