Trump faces MAGA backlash over Epstein files and arms for Ukraine
Far-right influencers voiced outrage last week when the US Justice Department suddenly walked back the notion that the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a "client list" of elites who participated in the late financier's trafficking of underage girls.
Trump quickly defended US Attorney General Pam Bondi — who suggested in February that such a document was on her desk, only to later clarify that she was referring to the overall case file — and criticised a reporter for daring to ask about the documents.
Some MAGA supporters online called the US president "out of touch" and demanded transparency over the government's files on Epstein, a call backed by conservative influencers and even Republican congresswoman and key Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene.
"America deserves the truth about Jeffrey Epstein and the rich powerful elites in his circle," the isolationist congresswoman from Georgia wrote on X on Monday.
Separately on Monday, Greene also criticised Trump's decision to provide arms for Ukraine.
Earlier on Monday, Trump had threatened Russia with steep tariffs and announced a pipeline for US weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward the Kremlin after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations for ending Moscow's full-scale invasion.
The US president said that billions of dollars' worth of US weapons would go to Ukraine — including Patriot air defence systems — and emphasised that NATO allies in Europe would foot the bill.
In an interview with the New York Times, Greene said the move was a betrayal of the America First agenda that Trump campaigned on.
"It's not just Ukraine, it's all foreign wars in general and a lot of foreign aid," she told the newspaper.
Greene also questioned Trump's assertion that the decision to arm Ukraine would not come at any cost to Washington, citing indirect expenses such as using US troops to train Ukrainian forces on the weapons being sent.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, our tax dollars are being used," Greene added.
A problem of Trump's own making?
Other members of MAGA, such as ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon, have also condemned the decision to send weapons to Ukraine.
"We're about to arm people we have literally no control over," Bannon said of Ukraine on his podcast. "This is old-fashioned, grinding war in the bloodlands of Europe — and we're being dragged into it."
Bannon, like Greene, has also voiced his frustration over the handling of the Epstein files.
At Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit over the weekend, Bannon said that the Trump administration could "lose 10% of the MAGA movement" due to the base's anger over the saga. That could cost the Republicans 40 House seats next year, he warned.
Conservative talk show host and another Trump ally Tucker Carlson also spoke at the summit and criticised the US government over the Epstein files.
"The fact that the US government, the one that I voted for, refused to take my question seriously and instead said: 'Case closed, shut up conspiracy theorist,' was too much for me," the former Fox News Host told the event. "And I don't think the rest of us should be satisfied with that."
The unusual challenge for Trump is that this appears to be a problem of his own making.
Trump has spent years stoking dark conspiracy theories and embracing QAnon-tinged narratives proposing him as the only saviour who can stop the so-called "deep state" — an alleged secret network of power that uses the government to promote their own sinister agenda.
The value of such an approach is that it helps individuals gain political power, according to Russell Muirhead, who teaches political science at Dartmouth College. He said Trump has exploited that "more ably than anybody probably in American history".
However, the conspiratorial community that Trump helped build is now coming back to haunt him — by demanding answers that he either cannot or does not want to provide, said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University.
"The faulty assumption Trump and others make is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback," he said. "The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle."
Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec said at the Student Action Summit on Saturday that he would not rest "until we go full 6 Jan committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files", referring to the panel that investigated the 2021 Capitol insurrection.
Trump's struggle to stop blowback
Trump on Saturday used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call his supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. The US president suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration — "all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein".
His first-term national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded with Trump to reconsider.
"Please understand the Epstein affair is not going away," Flynn wrote on Saturday in a post on X directed at Trump, adding that failing to address unanswered Epstein questions would make facing other national challenges "much harder".
Other Trump allies continue to push for answers, among them far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has called for Bondi to resign and said that a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the handling of the files on Epstein.
However, experts who study conspiracy theories warn that greater transparency does not necessarily make far-fetched narratives disappear.
"For some portion of this set of conspiracy theory believers, no amount of contradictory evidence will ever be enough," said Josephine Lukito, who studies conspiracy theorists at the University of Texas at Austin.
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