“Honestly, I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being,” Kirk said on his podcast days later. “I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration, I’m gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, ball’s in their hands.”
The MAGA faithful are furious not just about Epstein but also other broken promises, as WIRED reported earlier this week. But the bungled rollout of the Epstein materials, Trump advisers tell me, goes back to February, when the White House gave conservative influencers binders full of materials that were mostly already public information about the disgraced financier and charged sex trafficker.
Even some of the crucial podcast bros who helped push Trump over the top in 2024 are adding the handling of the Epstein case to their growing list of regrets. To voice his discontent, Andrew Schulz, a podcaster and comedian popular with young men, shared a screenshot on Instagram of the explosive WIRED report about likely modifications to the Epstein raw prison tape.
The more time passes, the further the freakout oozes past the diehards in the traditional MAGA base.
The Epstein toothpaste, the first Trump adviser says, can’t be put back in the tube—which is especially ironic, given that Trump stocked the top ranks of federal law enforcement with Epstein truthers. And after Trump’s 2024 campaign relied on, and buoyed, the conspiratorial MAGA base on its way to victory, the overeager staff who decided to arm conservative influencers with binders may have been just the latest mistake.
Even Trump seems to be at a loss for what to do next. In what could mark a turning point in the president’s otherwise ironclad relationship with his base, he appeared to call out MAGA world in a Truth Social post on Wednesday: “[The Democrats’] new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” the president wrote on his own social media site. “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will.”
The White House did not return a request for comment, including on whether the president thinks anyone who doubts him on Epstein is no longer MAGA.
There are plenty of variables and unknowns left in Trump’s second term. But given the particular fervor and salience of this issue among his most dedicated supporters and much of the conservative ecosystem, this increasingly seems like a moment marking a distinct epoch.
Call it Trump 2.0 B.E. and A.E.—before Epstein and the subsequent revolt, and after.
The Chatroom
Do you know anyone in your life who has been invested in the Epstein saga and may have thoughts? Or, perchance, do you work in the White House and have a tip?
Send your thoughts to mail@wired.com.
WIRED Reads
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What Else We’re Reading
🔗 The President’s Daughter-in-Law Hosts a Weekly Show on Fox News. To Call It “Propaganda” Is Too Kind: A great deep dive into the mechanics of Lara Trump’s Fox News show, which I record every week. (Media Matters)
🔗 How Fox News Massaged a Trump Interview: Fox News removed a key caveat from Trump’s answer about declassifying the Epstein files from an interview over the summer, and it has a whole new valence amid the current MAGA revolt. (Semafor)
🔗 How Popular Is Donald Trump? A notable finding here: 39 percent of Americans have no opinion on Trump’s handling of cryptocurrency, while 37 percent similarly have no opinion when it comes to the president and AI. (Silver Bulletin)
The Download
On last week’s Uncanny Valley podcast, my politics teammates and senior writers Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott share more about their DOGE 2.0 findings with senior politics editor Leah Feiger. Listen here.
That’s it for today—thanks again for reading. You can find me on Bluesky, via Email, or on Signal at Leak2Lahut.26.
