Trump flails as Epstein storm rages around his government

CNN

5 days ago

CNN —
Donald Trump very rarely loses control of his own story. But the Jeffrey Epstein saga is beyond his powers to quell.
It's a new twist for the president, being at odds with the loudest and most conspiratorial faction of his MAGA movement.
For once, he's becoming the victim of an out-of-control conspiracy, not the initiator of one. He looks like the insider covering up, not the ultimate outsider and deep-state destroyer.
Some of MAGA's most visible personalities are speaking up. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warned Monday of 'significant' reverberations in the movement over what some Trump supporters see as a cover-up. 'It's just a red line that it crosses for many people,' she told CNN's Manu Raju.
Tensions boiling between Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Patel's deputy, Dan Bongino, are rekindling memories of the chaos and dysfunction that scarred Trump's first term but have been less obvious in his more prolific second presidency.
analysis 4 big questions about Trump and Epstein
If anyone ought to know that the government can't issue statements of reassurance and make conspiracy theories disappear, it's Trump. He spun some of the most notorious fake intrigues in the history of American politics, from the racist fantasy about President Barack Obama's birthplace to the democracy-corroding tale that he won the 2020 election — which helped vault him back to power in 2024.
But Trump's mastery of the conspiratorial didn't help attempts to squelch the Epstein drama. The Justice Department last week issued a memo insisting that there was no evidence the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender kept a client list or that he was murdered in prison. But as the president could have told Bondi, telling people there is no there there only lights the fire of conspiracy.
That left the president in a worse spot Monday, as CNN reported he was increasingly frustrated about a controversy that has now gone on for almost a week and is overshadowing what the White House sees as a growing list of wins at home and abroad.
The political fallout
One big question is whether Trump risks damage in his own political coalition if he can't quiet the furor over the Justice Department's Epstein memo.
Trump has for a decade been the most dynamic right-wing figure in the country. He's built a brand by tearing things down and crushing Washington rules. But if even he can't end a MAGA media revolt, perhaps he's entering a rocky period with a force that has long sustained him.
Still, it would be unwise to underestimate his power.
Trump transformed the GOP in his populist, nationalist image. Lawmakers who challenge him are often excommunicated. At Trump campaign rallies, the trust and devotion he inspired among his followers was palpable.
MAGA media influencers who criticize him seem to understand that their status in the movement relies on the reflected glory of its megastar: Before Trump's recent strikes on Iran, many of them warned that he risked splitting his base by launching foreign wars — but most fell back into line when the bombs started falling.
'Donald Trump has a very significant hold on the Republican Party, and I think anybody that thinks that this is the end of Donald Trump's hold on the GOP is wrong,' Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, told Kasie Hunt on 'The Arena' on Monday. Still, Anderson added that this flap could be more problematic for Trump than the ideological battles that he's forced on the GOP because it involves the issue of trust with his supporters and his outsider status.
But in next year's midterm elections, when Trump won't be on the ballot, any falloff in enthusiasm among grassroots Republicans could have an impact.
Steve Bannon, a Trump first-term political adviser who now presents the 'War Room' podcast, argued at the Turning Point USA conference on Friday that it wouldn't take much erosion in the MAGA base to have a dramatic effect. He said that if 10% of the movement was disaffected, the party could lose 40 House seats. That would mean a Democratic majority.
What will Trump do next?
It's worth watching to see whether Trump senses he's under pressure. If so, a president who is an expert at distraction may seek to stage-manage new controversies.
Trump has often returned to the issue embedded in the DNA of the MAGA movement — hardline positions on immigration — to bring the gang back together. So it was not surprising to see border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem talking tough on Sunday news shows. But those MAGA administration favorites still couldn't disguise the rumblings over Epstein, which intensified all weekend.
Those rumblings were initiated in the first place by Bondi hinting earlier this year on Fox News that there could be a big reveal in the case. Trump has made strong show of support for his AG in recent days, including appearing with her at the FIFA Club World Cup Final on Sunday. She is also valuable to him and has transformed her department into a de facto personal legal firm for the president.
Still, if she can't quell the noise from the political base, there will be more whispers in Trump's ear about her performance. The president has soured on his Cabinet picks in such circumstances in the past.
Trump wrote on social media over the weekend that Bondi was 'great' and should be allowed to do her job.
But loyalty usually only works one way in the Trump administration. And one way of getting on the right side of the story would be for the president to distance himself from Bondi.
CNN's White House team reported, meanwhile, that while the president doesn't want to lose Bongino over this issue because it would make his Cabinet look split, some expect the deputy FBI director will not remain in his job long term.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told Raju on Monday that he still had faith in Bondi and that he trusted the president to do the right thing about the Epstein issue. The fact that the Louisiana Republican is prepared to entertain such questions shows the attorney general is under pressure.
The conspiracist-in-chief
True to form, Trump sought to extricate himself from the mess by starting new conspiracy theories blaming Democrats for failing to release the files years ago. This has often worked in the past to bind his coalition together. But it's not working this time.
The president merely opened the way for Democrats to heap scrutiny on his decisions.
'The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole trust and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday as he tried to widen MAGA splits. 'This was a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.'
Top conservative influencers at the Turning Point conference and on Monday podcasts continued to demand answers about Epstein, where he got his money, who he was linked to and who was covering for him.
All this shows that the Epstein controversy is unlikely to go away quickly.
One reason why is that it's become central to an argument that Trump and his aides promoted for years that the United States is under the control of a 'deep state' of intelligence agencies, billionaire financiers and shady political forces that are orchestrating events behind the scenes.
Trump tapped into this false mythology to build his own power — portraying himself as a victim of CIA and FBI plots and weaponized justice because he was the avatar of the hopes of MAGA followers across the country.
Now it looks like he's siding with such supposedly rotten institutions, not bringing them down.
How the Epstein storm could hurt the country
But this is not just about the president and his movement.
Given his position, and the chaos gripping the Justice Department, there are implications for the country.
The controversy is offering a damning insight into modern politics and the contribution of a fractured media environment to the shattering of the concept of truth.
The refusal of MAGA media personalities to accept that the facts do not support a cover-up around Epstein's alleged client list and his death in prison reflects an extreme version of a powerful trend — the desire of increasing numbers of citizens to choose curated truths that support what they want to believe. Trump has done more than any other politician to promote this.
analysis MAGA media's conspiracy theories put Trump in power — and now they're coming back to bite him
The corrosive nature of Trump's conspiracy-consumed government also threatens to damage the Justice Department and FBI. Vitriol ricocheting through the management suite risks detracting from the core missions of the DOJ and the bureau — which include the fair administration of justice and the protection of Americans against violent crime and terrorism. It also shows that when the purpose of such agencies is tainted by politics — as it has been under Trump — the ramifications can sometimes spin out of control.
And no one in MAGA media is talking about one key issue.
Many of those who voted for Trump in his more-diverse-than-usual Republican coalition last year weren't hardcore MAGA conspiracists. They were Americans frustrated with the cost-of-living crisis: the price of groceries, rent, child care and education.
How is this political saga over a wild conspiracy about a dead and accused sex offender going over with them?
It seems unlikely it will be top of mind when they show up at the polls next November to decide the fate of Republican congressional majorities.