When US President Donald Trump was questioned why his MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters were interested in Jeffrey Epstein, he shrugged and claimed he didn’t know. The broken promise of releasing Epstein’s client list sparked outrage among his loyalists. In response, Trump said he didn’t understand the “interest or what the fascination is” with Epstein, as he has been “dead for a long time and was never a big factor” in his life.

Figures like commentator Tucker Carlson, right-wing activist Laura Loomer, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon claim the government’s handling of the case shows a lack of transparency, as per an AP report. Anger over the case threatens to divide the MAGA faithful.

“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff… I think really, only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going,” responded Trump to MAGA’s fury.

Speaking to reporters, he also said, “But credible information, let them give it. Anything that’s credible, I would say let them have it,” referring to disclosures from the Department of Justice.

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Drawing parallels to the Mueller witch hunt and the Steele Dossier, Trump compared his situation to them. He reiterated that, they were politically motivated and “fake”. In an earlier statement, Trump claimed that the “files were written by Obama, crooked Hillary, and the Biden administration”. He accused them of manufacturing the Epstein narrative to cause political harm to his administration.

MAGA rebellion on ‘Epstein Files’

The MAGA fallout amid the criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein has become a threat to Trump’s victory lap. With a divide among his supporters, Trump has urged on his social media that he didn’t “like what’s happening”. However, both Attorney General Bondi and the Department of Justice oppose the release of the files since they contain sensitive content and have thus been kept under a judge’s seal.

Trump’s clash with Bondi has been rather public and has ultimately led to backlash from MAGA supporters like Mike Davis, the legal brawler. This split within the supporters during Trump’s second term in office has become a slippery slope for Trump’s remaining tenure. With accusations from one side, to being stuck between the DOJ and FBI, the authenticity of the “files” remains a question.