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Cult loyalty is blind until it isn’t. Donald Trump’s populist truth test now seems to be at hand. Whether or not the “Epstein files” exist is secondary. Trump and his leading henchmen stoked a frenzy about the cover-up of material relating to the late convicted sex abuser’s allegedly complicit circle of friends. Now they say that they have nothing to show. “We will bring justice to the paedophiles!” has been replaced by: “Move along, nothing to see.” On this occasion, however — and for the first time in a serious way — the Maga cult is not obeying orders.
Indeed, it looks even worse than that for Trump. For years he insisted there was a deep-state plot that only he could expose. Many of his leading backers, notably Kash Patel, who now heads the FBI, and the attorney-general, Pam Bondi, presented the Epstein files as a defining example of establishment depravity. Now they say it was fake news. But Trump is messing up their U-turn. Last weekend he claimed that the Epstein files did exist after all but had been concocted by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden — as well as former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and other familiar suspects.
Then he pleaded with his base to focus on something else. It is not only Trump’s world that is having trouble keeping up. “One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” he posted on Truth Social. To be clear, millions of Americans of all leanings care about the Epstein case. You do not need to be a conspiracy theorist to find something fishy about Trump’s special pleading.
That Trump himself has previously admitted to being a friend of Epstein for 15 years is creeping into Maga consciousness. The president has since claimed he was “not a fan” and “had a falling out with him a long time ago”. Blaming Bondi and Patel for this latest alleged cover-up, which some Maga influencers are doing, is a distraction. Patel and Bondi are the blind loyalists in this equation. Claiming that the sovereign is being betrayed by his courtiers is as old as history. “If only the Tsar/Stalin/Hitler knew what was being done he would fix it,” they cry. But making sacrificial lambs of Bondi or Patel will not bail him out. It could only work if their replacements uncovered new evidence.
So how will Trump get out of this? The only previous time he has clashed with his base was over the Covid vaccines. In spite of having presided over “Operation Warp Speed”, which was arguably his greatest first-term feat, he dropped that bragging right when rally-goers started to boo him in 2021. If he could not beat the mob he would join them, even if it meant forgoing credit. Siding with the crowd is not an option Trump seems willing to take with the Epstein files.
When he first ran for president, Trump claimed his base was so loyal he could shoot someone on New York’s Fifth Avenue and they would still vote for him. That may still be true. But sexual abuse plays a central role in Maga’s deep-state conspiracy theories. Most of their myths are just that — most notably the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria satanic paedophile ring.
What distinguishes the Epstein story is that it derives from a legally proven case. I have no idea whether the FBI has evidence from its Epstein documents that could damage Trump, or other big names. Epstein’s social circle included other billionaires, a former US president, a former governor, a former senator, a former bank boss and a member of the British royal family. His world knew no partisan boundaries. What they had in common was affinity to a billionaire donor who threw racy parties.
Leading Maga figures and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are now calling for an inquiry into the alleged Epstein cover-up. Who knows where that unlikely cross-ideological rallying cry could lead? Trump could defuse the problem by agreeing to appoint a special counsel. Dozens of powerful men could come off badly from such a probe. Should Trump stonewall this demand, the suspicion that he is hiding something will grow.
At a time when the Maga world is showing signs of broader disaffection — notably on Trump’s newfound enthusiasm for arming Ukraine, and making an exception in his deportation drive for illegal immigrants who work in agriculture — the president is taking a gamble that Epstein will go away.
It might be a bit late for Trump to acquaint himself with the Chinese proverb: if you ride the tiger, it is hard to get off.
www.ft.com
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