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Theo Von, the star podcaster recommended to Donald Trump by son Barron during the election campaign, has pressed Vice President JD Vance over the Epstein Files.
Von reshared an X post Wednesday that included footage of an October 2024 interview between him and Vance.
In that clip, Von quipped that officials need to “release the list” when Vance told him that many politicians have vices “worse than alcoholism.” Vance replied that the U.S. “seriously” needs to “release the Epstein list.”
On X this week, the original poster wrote: “Hey JD, what changed?”
The podcaster replied: “Yeah what changed?”
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Vice President JD Vance (right) appears on Theo Von’s podcast in October. At the time, Vance told Von officials need to release the Epstein Files (This Past Weekend with Theo Von)
Von, 45, hosts This Past Weekend, the fourth-largest podcast on Spotify in the U.S., and has attracted politicians, including Senator Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump. About five million people listen to Von’s podcasts each month, and he’s particularly influential among young men and Trump voters.
“First of all, absolutely not,” Vance told Von. “Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein. Whatever the Democrats and the media says about him, that’s totally B.S.”
Von’s X jab comes as the Trump administration faces severe pushback from their MAGA base after the DOJ and FBI released a joint memo confirming that Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 and did not have a “client list” of rich and powerful people.
The memo attempted shut down conspiracy theories — which current FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino once peddled — surrounding Epstein’s death.
But the memo simply raised questions after Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested she had the client list on her desk in February.
Trump, who once socialized with Epstein, has attempted to quell the MAGA outrage. He demanded his supporters stop going after Bondi in a Truth Social post on Saturday. In a post Wednesday, Trump accused his “past” supporters of dragging the issue.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls***,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also told reporters Tuesday that the Epstein files were “made up” by former President Barack Obama and former FBI Director James Comey. He’s continued to defend Bondi’s actions since.
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President Donald Trump has defended Attorney General Pam Bondi amid the Epstein files pushback (AP)
Trump recently revealed that he went on Von’s podcast last year after his teenage son, Barron, recommended it during his campaign.
“Barron, said, ‘Dad, you got to do an interview’ with somebody I hadn’t heard of, but my son knew very well,” Trump said, during a speech in May.
“This is before the election. You know, we won in a landslide, in case you hadn’t known, but he said, ‘Dad, you got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von,’” Trump added. “I said, ‘Who the hell is Theo Von?’ He said, ‘Dad, he’s such a big guy. You got to do an interview.’ So he knew all the names.”
Barron, 19, graduated from high school during the last presidential campaign. He enrolled at New York University’s Stern School of Business in the fall, just months before his father won the White House for a second time.
He’s expected to start his second year at NYU in September.