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\u201cI feel so betrayed and so angry. This is not what I voted for.\u201d \u201cThis cemented permanent deep state power.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m concerned about being able to trust Donald Trump<\/a> to keep his word.\u201d \u201cWhat about justice for these young ladies who were trafficked? What about their justice? Don\u2019t they deserve justice?\u201d<\/p>\n These were just a few of the calls that besieged conservative radio hosts<\/a> across the US this week. The president\u2019s ardent supporters spent the past decade fulminating over various foes, from Barack Obama and the deep state to undocumented immigrants and transgender children. Now they have a new target: Donald Trump himself.<\/p>\n The \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d (Maga) base is in revolt as never before. The trigger was Trump\u2019s broken promise to publicly release details about Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, who was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died in jail in 2019.<\/p>\n Spurred by the president<\/a> and his allies, Trump\u2019s movement has long latched on to the Epstein scandal, claiming the existence of a secret client list and that he was murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up. But last week the justice department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced there was no evidence<\/a> that the disgraced financier kept such a list or was blackmailing powerful figures.<\/p>\n Far from closing the case, the memo deepened supporters\u2019 obsession and sense of grievance. A movement defined by the view that elites rig the system against them felt cheated. Trump made efforts to douse the flames with ever-shifting explanations, excuses and distractions but merely poured fuel on the fire.<\/p>\n To some, his erratic and evasive behaviour implies a guilty secret. It also evokes a line from President John F Kennedy\u2019s 1961 inaugural address<\/a>: \u201cThose who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.\u201d Having spent years embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only saviour who can demolish the \u201cdeep state\u201d, Trump is now seen as co-opted by its corrupt bureaucracy.<\/p>\n Joe Walsh<\/a>, a former Republican congressman who ran against Trump for president in 2020, said: \u201cI talk to the base every day and nothing animates the base more than the deep state. This Epstein thing was Trump\u2019s promise. This was going to finally expose the deep state. Now Trump says nothing there? It ain\u2019t going to stand.\u201d<\/p>\n Epstein was first charged with sex offences in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter at his Florida home. He avoided federal charges due to a controversial plea deal that saw him jailed for just under 13 months. In 2019 he was arrested again in New York and charged with trafficking dozens of teenage girls and engaging in sex acts with them in exchange for money.<\/p>\n A separate case against Epstein\u2019s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>, who was jailed in 2022 for helping him abuse girls, detailed Epstein\u2019s connections with high-profile figures such as Britain\u2019s Prince Andrew and the former US president Bill Clinton. Both have denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n In 2019 \u2013 during Trump\u2019s first term as president \u2013 Epstein was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself, according to the authorities. Sceptics point to suspicious circumstances such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, along with other irregularities.<\/p>\n They also speculate that the government is concealing details about the Epstein case to protect wealthy and influential clients, including Trump, a longtime associate who in 2002 told New York magazine<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> that Trump sent a letter featuring a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein in 2003. The president denied writing the letter or drawing the figure, and sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n When he was running for president, Trump said he would release files related to the case. But a bundle put out in February contained little new information. Then in June the spotlight turned back on the president when his former adviser Elon Musk claimed \u2013 in a now-deleted X post \u2013 that Trump is \u201cin the Epstein files\u201d.<\/p>\n Just a month later, a memo from the justice department and FBI said the Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation. An almost 11-hour video published to dispel theories Epstein was murdered showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died but appeared to be missing a minute of footage.<\/p>\n The Maga faithful erupted in fury. Media personality Tucker Carlson, activist Laura Loomer<\/a> and Trump\u2019s former adviser Steve Bannon claim the government\u2019s handling of the case lacks transparency. The far-right commentator Jack Posobiec said he would not rest \u201cuntil we go full Jan 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files\u201d.<\/p>\n Baffled, flailing and unusually out of step, Trump used his Truth Social platform to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, over the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s going on with my \u2018boys\u2019 and, in some cases, \u2018gals\u2019?\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cThey\u2019re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We\u2019re on one Team, MAGA, and I don\u2019t like what\u2019s happening.\u201d He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration \u2013 \u201call over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein\u201d.<\/p>\n People holds signs calling for the release of files regarding Jeffrey Epstein in Houston. Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Yet while Trump has defeated many political foes, he has never had to take on his own base. Taking a scattergun approach, he said he supported the release of any \u201ccredible\u201d files related to Epstein while downplaying the case as \u201cpretty boring stuff\u201d. He suggested without citing evidence they were \u201cmade up\u201d by former FBI director James Comey and former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.<\/p>\n The president even lashed out at his own supporters, calling them \u201cweaklings\u201d for falling for what he called a \u201cradical left\u201d hoax by the opposition to discredit him. \u201cI don\u2019t want their support anymore!\u201d he wrote. Some responded by burning their Maga caps<\/a> in protest.<\/p>\n Still the pressure continued to build. Mike Pence, his former vice-president, said in an interview with CBS News<\/a> that \u201cthe time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s investigation and prosecution\u201d. Even Mike Johnson, the loyal Republican speaker of the House, broke from Trump on the issue and urged the justice department to make public any documents linked to Epstein.<\/p>\n A small but growing band of House Republicans followed suit. Musk put dozens of posts on X<\/a> accusing Trump of a \u201ccover-up\u201d. On Thursday the president made a concession by announcing that he will ask a court to allow the release of grand jury testimony<\/a> in the case. It was the latest effort to defuse a crisis of his own making.<\/p>\n His political career gained traction with the help of the \u201cbirther\u201d movement, pushing the racist idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore an illegitimate president. He was content to accept support from followers of QAnon, an antisemitic theory involving Satan-worshipping cannibals and a child sex-trafficking ring.<\/p>\n Trump also cultivated the ultimate political conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, a \u201cbig lie\u201d that culminated in the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Now he is finding that the nothing-to-see-here approach does not work for those who learned from him they must not give up until the government\u2019s secrets are exposed.<\/p>\n Charlie Sykes<\/a>, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, said: \u201cHe\u2019s being eaten by the very sort of conspiracy theory that propelled him into office in the first place. Donald Trump is a product of as well as a purveyor of conspiracy theories. He has marinated in conspiracy theories and used them to put him into the presidency so you do have what appears to be a giant irony that this particular conspiracy theory is the one that is haunting him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ghost of Jeffrey Epstein is haunting Trump\u2019s presidency far more than any of the other issues that are out there now. Trump is finding out that, if you\u2019ve pushed a conspiracy theory for years, it\u2019s very difficult to suddenly declare that it\u2019s non-existent or a hoax. He\u2019s doing this Jedi mind trick<\/a> where he is trying to say, no this is not the conspiracy theory you actually care about.\u201d<\/p>\n For once Trump has overestimated his ability to shape reality to his own will<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Charlie Sykes<\/p>\n Trump has already tested his base\u2019s loyalty in recent weeks by bombing Iran<\/a> and pledging support for Ukraine, despite a pledge to avoid foreign entanglements, as well as signing a tax and spending bill that will strip health insurance from millions of people. But Epstein is different: a binary view of liberal elites as paedophiles, and Republicans as protectors of children, has become foundational.<\/p>\n Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster, commented: \u201cOne of the reasons why the Maga base was so obsessed is that it gave them licence to genuinely hate and loathe their political opponents, to consider that the Democrats were not merely wrong on the issues, that they were part of this evil paedophile cabal.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the justification for so much of what Trumpism has become and suddenly to pull the rug out from under the base was a radical and a risky move. For once Trump has overestimated his ability to shape reality to his own will.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a rare political gift for Democrats, who have been reeling since Trump\u2019s victory in November and struggling to thwart his expansion of presidential power. Several Democrats on Capitol Hill have called for the release<\/a> of all Epstein files and suggested that Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them.<\/p>\n Ro Khanna, a congressman from California whose measure<\/a> that would have forced Bondi to publish all documents related to Epstein online was blocked by Republicans, said: \u201cThe Republicans are basically protecting the rich and powerful. That\u2019s what the Epstein case is about: the rich and powerful men who were allegedly sleeping with underage girls and they should not have impunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re being protected, possibly because they\u2019re donors to people in Washington, because they play golf with people in Washington. So this is a question of whose side are you on? The Democratic party has a chance to have a rebirth of populism, to say we\u2019re on the side of the people, we get that this town hasn\u2019t worked for ordinary people for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n Some veterans of bareknuckle political fights of the past, however, warn that Democrats are still not rising to the moment. If the tables were turned and a Democratic president was suppressing such delicate information, it seems likely that Republicans<\/a> would be aggressively flooding the airwaves demanding investigations and impeachment.<\/p>\n Steve Schmidt<\/a>, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: \u201cIt\u2019s just weak. From a leadership perspective, there\u2019s an inability to put the knife in and twist it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a reluctance because of the tawdriness of it all to appreciate that for Democrats, they lost an election to the most prolific liar because he was perceived as being more honest in the eyes of the American people. This is a prime example to strip him of that in the eyes of his most fervent supporters, and at least move them by some percentage to the sidelines and demotivate them.\u201d<\/p>\n Schmidt advocates a national advertising campaign and series of town halls in which Democrats demand an end to the cover-up and ask what Trump and Bondi are hiding. \u201cThis is a moment where Trump is weak, he\u2019s perturbed, he\u2019s disturbed \u2013 and what you do is you hit him.\u201d<\/p>\n Public opinion is turning against the president. A Reuters\/Ipsos poll<\/a> found that 69% of respondents thought the federal government was hiding details about Epstein\u2019s clients, compared with 6% who disagreed and about one in four who said they were not sure.<\/p>\n