WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is facing an unprecedented and explosive revolt from his most ardent supporters, as a long-awaited government memo on Jeffrey Epstein failed to deliver on years of conspiracy theories, instead creating a bitter schism that pits the MAGA movement against its own leader.
The firestorm erupted last week after the Justice Department and the FBI released a memo concluding there was no evidence that the disgraced financier had a list of powerful men involved in his sex trafficking ring and that his 2019 death in a New York jail cell was a suicide, not a murder. The findings directly contradicted years of promises from the president and his top allies that bombshell revelations were imminent, leading to a furious backlash from prominent conservative voices and creating a loyalty test that has shaken the administration.
With Trump defending the official findings, the situation has devolved into a chaotic spectacle of public infighting, with the president’s base for the first time openly defying his cues. The crisis has exposed deep fissures within the administration and offers a potential glimpse into how the powerful MAGA movement might evolve in a post-Trump era.
The fallout has been most acute within the federal law enforcement agencies tasked with the investigation. Tensions between FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, reportedly boiled over at an explosive meeting Wednesday, where they were confronted about their potential role in a story claiming the FBI wanted to release more information but was blocked by the Justice Department. Following the meeting, Bongino, a prominent conservative commentator, was reportedly considering his resignation and did not show up for work on Friday.
Patel, who frequently fanned the flames of Epstein conspiracies himself, posted a statement to social media Saturday attempting to quell the rebellion, conceding, “The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been.”
The primary target of MAGA’s fury, however, has been Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who had repeatedly promised to release the Epstein documents. Despite the intense criticism, President Trump has mounted a robust defense of his attorney general, issuing a strong show of support on social media and inviting her to watch the FIFA Club World Cup final from his private box on Sunday.
The president has seemed caught off-guard by the intensity of the infighting, attempting to rein in his supporters over the weekend. “What’s going on with my boys and in some cases, gals? They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Privately, Trump has been working the phones, calling some of Bondi’s most vocal critics in an effort to stem the bleeding, according to three sources familiar with the matter. He has also reverted to a familiar playbook, blaming Democrats for not releasing the files sooner and claiming that Epstein is “somebody that nobody cares about.”
But those efforts appeared to do little to appease his base. At the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, a major gathering of young conservatives, the Epstein issue was a dominant and recurring theme.
“You either believe that Pam Bondi was telling the truth then, or that she’s telling the truth now, but both cannot be true,” conservative commentator Megyn Kelly told the crowd Friday, labeling Bondi the “villain in this story” for what she described as years of teasing bombshells that never materialized.
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, issued a stark warning from the stage on Saturday: “Pam, if you can’t do your job, we’ll find someone who will.”
While Bondi bore the brunt of the attacks, others blamed the administration more broadly. “I don’t think they’re telling us the truth about Epstein,” said YouTuber Brandon Tatum. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called the Epstein saga “the key that picks the lock on so many things — not just individuals, but also institutions.”
The sentiment was perhaps best captured when Fox News host Laura Ingraham polled the summit crowd: “How many of you are satisfied with the result of the Epstein investigation?” She was met with overwhelming boos, a clear and public rebuke of the administration’s official findings and a sign of the deep chasm that has opened between the president and the movement he created.
