For the QAnon followers and assorted conspiracy theorists at the core of President Trump’s MAGA coalition, the existence of the storied “Jeffrey Epstein Files” might as well be the movement’s gospel truth. Trump himself boasted that Epstein’s files were so damning that their big reveal would put most of his Democratic opponents behind bars.
Instead, the conspiracy theory that gave us Trump is now threatening to burn his presidency to the ground.
Trump sold himself to conspiracy-minded voters as the only man in America capable of “draining the swamp” and revealing the true scope of Epstein’s sex trafficking and grimy influence-peddling. His claim this week that the Epstein files never existed set off a MAGA crisis of faith that cut deeper and broader than any past quarrel — it’s even fracturing his own ultra-loyalist Cabinet.
The Department of Justice is so paralyzed by Epstein-related turf wars that Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino briefly stopped coming to work. Meanwhile, top Republican donor and former Trump ally Elon Musk implied in a post on X that Trump might even be named in Epstein’s files, a staggering accusation from such an intimate former confidant. Even Trump lapdog Charlie Kirk displayed a flash of conscience before the White House bullied him back into line.
To 70 percent of Trump voters and the millions of Americans tuning in for the media scandal of the summer, Trump the Crusading Epstein Truther now looks like Trump the Man with Something to Hide. The swamp he so boldly pledged to drain is quickly rising up his legs, leaving the president with two bad options: release documents he claims not to have or admit that one of MAGA’s founding myths is a lie.
Trump is standing in front of an exploding fireworks store and insisting there is nothing to see here. But he isn’t Frank Drebin and this isn’t “The Naked Gun.” Epstein was a real criminal, and uncovering the full truth of his crimes comes with real stakes for the women he abused and the lives he destroyed. Trump is playing political games with an unspeakable crime. The public is right to be furious.
Trump’s self-inflicted scandal has gifted Democrats something akin to Republicans’ 2015 Benghazi hearings, Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Hunter Biden laptop scandal all rolled into one. Epstein’s depraved life and unexpected death in 2019 still captivate the American imagination. His name is still front-page news, straddling the worlds of power politics and lurid true crime entertainment. But propriety be damned, the people want to know more.
There’s good reason for our cultural obsession with Epstein and our continued hunger for answers. His life was no conspiracy theory, and his 2008 sweetheart plea deal was so rotten that even the Justice Department formally disavowed its unbelievably lenient terms. We deserve and expect the transparency that Trump promised us, including full disclosure of Epstein’s files and personal documents.
The White House has a surprising ally in its quest for transparency in the Epstein case: House Democrats. On Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment that would force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files in full, effectively helping Trump fulfill one of his major campaign promises. Republicans were less than grateful for Khanna’s help, voting to block the amendment (and the release of the files).
In fact, Republicans are going out of their way to prevent any discussion of the investigation at all. On Monday, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell suggested she would be willing to testify under oath about the financier’s sex trafficking operation. Not a single Republican lawmaker has supported capturing Maxwell’s firsthand testimony — perhaps they are afraid of what she might say.
After years of kicking rocks and cursing their bad luck, Democrats have been handed a headline-ready issue that voters care about and that Trump can’t easily shake off. Recent polling has seen his approval rating tumble as the Republican base seethes over an Epstein bait-and-switch that plays directly to their conspiratorial mindset. The public wants hearings. Democrats should give them hearings, even if that means conducting them in the press.
Instead of giving Americans the truth about the Epstein files, Trump offered an evolving string of unconvincing excuses before finally claiming the whole thing was a Democratic hoax. It was a line that would have electrified the MAGA base in 2016. But few Americans, even those who make up the backbone of Trump’s political movement, believe lines like that anymore.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
