Those who live by conspiracy theories don’t necessarily die by conspiracy theories – but they sure run the risk of being embarrassed by them. Just ask President Donald J. Trump.
During the 2024 presidential election campaign, some of Trump’s most vocal allies – JD Vance, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino – fired up the MAGA base by demanding the release of all government files associated with Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile financier jailed in 2008 for procuring a minor for prostitution, released in 2009 and charged again in 2019 with the sex trafficking and the abuse of dozens of underage girls. He died in jail that year awaiting trial.
MAGA conspiracy theorists convinced themselves the Epstein files contained a ‘client list’ of names, supposed mainly to be prominent Democrats, who enjoyed sexual favours from the young girls Epstein gathered around him, often with the help of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite now serving 20 years in federal prison for procuring Epstein’s victims. Trump promised he’d make the list public. Well, Trump has been President since January, Vance is Vice-President, Patel is Director of the FBI and Bongino his deputy.
But, lo and behold, still no client list. Worse than that, the Justice Department, run by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump loyalist and MAGA favourite, announced that a thorough review had turned up no Epstein list. Nor was there any evidence to suggest Epstein’s death was murder rather than suicide.
Clearly some conspiracy theories are hard to substantiate even when you have access to all the files and resources of
the federal government – and the incentive to vindicate what you claimed to win power. But that didn’t dampen howls of outrage from the MAGA base.
The so-called ‘Deep State’ had triumphed yet again in hiding the truth, it cried. Bondi, who at one stage stupidly claimed to have the client list on her desk, must resign. Trump had let down his most fervent, loyal supporters. Some even burnt their red MAGA baseball caps. The first ever MAGA mutiny was underway.
Trump was furious. At one stage he even berated his core support for their obsession with Epstein, calling them ‘weaklings’ who were being ‘deluded’ by a ‘hoax’, which was pretty rich coming from someone who’d done his best to promote the ‘hoax’.
It was always known that Trump and Epstein had been best mates in the 1990s and early 2000s, though Trump claimed to have severed any connection even before Epstein was jailed in 2008
Then came something of an embarrassment for the President: the austere Wall Street Journal revealed Trump had contributed to a leather-bound book in 2003 compiled by Maxwell to mark Epstein’s 50th birthday. In what the Journal primly described as ‘bawdy’, Trump’s birthday message featured the drawing of a naked woman with the President’s signature – a squiggly ‘Donald’ – written below her waist to mimic pubic hair.
The greeting ends with Trump saying: ‘A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.’
Unfortunate wording, in the light of subsequent events, to say the least.
It was always known that Trump and Epstein had been best mates in the 1990s and early 2000s, though Trump claimed to have severed any connection even before Epstein was jailed in 2008, saying he’d even banned him from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a house.
A 2002 magazine profile of Epstein quoted Trump saying: ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.’ Trump said: ‘He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’ Could it be that the client list had failed to materialise because, as Elon Musk recently suggested (only to withdraw the accusation), Trump is one of the names on it?
Nobody knows. Trump, true to form, has dismissed the Journal report as ‘fake news’ and threatened to sue the paper and its proprietor, a certain Rupert Murdoch, who also happens to own the broadcasting arm of the Trump White House, aka Fox News, so it can hardly be seen as a politically motivated attack on the President, even if the Journal is more old-school Republican than MAGA Republican.
In his denial, Trump claimed he’d ‘never wrote [sic] a picture in my life’, refuting the very idea he’d illustrate his greeting with a sketch. This is demonstrably false, since there is a well-documented history of Trump doodles, often of New York landmarks – some of which he even boasted of signing and donating to charity.
No doubt the Journal story was lawyered to within an inch of its life before publication. Murdoch would have insisted. America is now enjoying the delicious spectacle of Trump and his camp followers tying themselves in knots.
The Justice Department, run by Attorney General Pam Bondi (pictured), Trump loyalist and MAGA favourite, announced that a thorough review had turned up no Epstein list
MAGA wanted the client list published in the belief it would expose leading Democrats. Now Trump is saying it was compiled by Democrats, including Presidents Obama and Biden, and so can’t be trusted. Meanwhile his Justice Department says it doesn’t exist. Not exactly consistent messaging.
The idea the Democrats are behind it all is especially ludicrous. It would require believing that long ago they got together to create fake files to discredit Trump – but didn’t use them to stop him being elected in 2016, failed to use them again in 2020 and 2024 to thwart his re-election, then left them behind in the hope MAGA would force Trump to release them no matter the damage they might do to him.
The Democratic Party is widely regarded as pretty useless these days. But not that useless.
There was a time when Trumpland couldn’t stop talking about the Epstein files. Now Trump rounds on anybody who dares raise it. ‘Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?’ Trump snarled at one reporter.
The President realises, however, that his base is still fired up about the matter. At the end of the week he threw them a bone, instructing Attorney General Bondi to release ‘any and all’ grand jury testimony about the Epstein case. This has pacified his MAGA critics – but probably not for long.
The grand jury transcripts amount to a small fraction of the Epstein investigation files. There is a much bigger treasure trove of videos, photographs, witness interviews, texts and emails – plus logs of who visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean and transcripts of wiretaps of Maxwell’s phone. The Democrats are now joining with MAGA in calling for all of it to be released.
The White House is all over the place. On Wednesday it was mooted that a special prosecutor be appointed to handle the files. By Thursday that idea had been given the kybosh, for reasons unknown. But the issue will not go away.
The Epstein files will not bring down the Trump presidency. This is no Watergate. The US economy is still doing fine despite all the nonsense over tariffs.
The southern border with Mexico has been secured, with illegal immigration reduced to a trickle. These things matter more to most Americans than Jeffrey Epstein.
For the moment the MAGA movement has united to excoriate what it hates the most: the mainstream media.
Vance, who mysteriously lost his voice when Bondi said there was no client list, has suddenly found it again, calling the Journal story ‘complete and utter bulls**t’, even though he’s in no position to know.
But bashing the media only gets you so far. Trump has been hoist with his own petard. His penchant for spreading Deep State conspiracy theories has come back to bite him on the bottom.
He has unleashed forces he can no longer control. There was a time when it was only MAGA that cared much about the Epstein files. No longer.
Trump may affect to have lost interest but America’s appetite has been whetted. A new Reuters poll reveals that almost 70 per cent of Americans now think Trump is withholding information that should be in the public domain to protect himself.
For a country so deeply divided, that is quite a consensus. Trump would be wise not to defy it.
