It seemed as though QAnon was everywhere a few years ago, but in recent months, the name of this infamous Donald Trump-worshipping cult has faded from headlines. Sadly, it's not because they went away. Instead, the already-porous boundary between the mainstream GOP and the conspiracy cult has collapsed completely. Elected Republican leaders now spend taxpayer money hyping debunked conspiracy theories, while popular MAGA influencers keep up a steady stream of ever-stranger claims that mysterious forces run the world — and are, of course, out to get Trump.
The surest sign of the merger of QAnon and the larger GOP is the right's obsession with the Jeffrey Epstein case. At first blush, you'd think MAGA thought leaders would want to throw the story down the memory hole, since Trump was a close friend and a big fan of the deceased rapist. Instead, MAGA pundits and news outlets have become obsessed with finding the fictional "Epstein files," which they falsely believe will produce a "client list" kept by the infamous sex trafficker. QAnon is the key to understanding the MAGA fixation on Epstein.
The central QAnon belief is that a secret cabal of Satanic pedophilic Democrats runs much of the world and that Trump is prophesied to be a savior who will expose them all. They now hang their hopes on the belief that the mythical "Epstein files" will fulfill the prophecy. But even though Trump now controls the federal government and has appointed lickspittles to run the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI, those "Epstein files" keep not showing up. The reason is that they don't exist.
Rather than level with the conspiracists and risk losing them forever, however, Trump and his team keep lying. Trump said they'd be here in "two weeks" — over a month ago. Attorney General Pam Bondi showily gave them binders of "Epstein files," which proved to be just the already public information, because there isn't any more. Then Trump released the classified files from President John F. Kennedy's assassination, hoping to distract them, but no cigar.
On Friday, the MAGA restlessness reached a new level after the news that Virginia Giuffre, one of the most outspoken Epstein victims, died by suicide. Sadly, this is not a shock considering her lifelong mental health struggles and news stories suggesting she's been experiencing personal turmoil recently. Predictably, the entire MAGA propaganda apparatus immediately decided it was murder. (They also believe this of Epstein's death by suicide in a jail cell.) Giuffre spent years sharing all the details of what she endured, making it unlikely she was holding back something that needed "silencing," not that conspiracists can reason based on evidence like that. But even in their addled state, Giuffre's death is making it hard for MAGA conspiracists to ignore that Trump keeps not fulfilling the "prophecy" of the "Epstein files" that they have clung to for so long.
"RELEASE THE FREAKING EPSTEIN FILES before even MORE victims get suicided," complained the MAGA influencer Nick Sortor to his nearly million Twitter followers. "ALL of MAGA, myself included, has collectively been SCREAMING for the release of the Epstein files for close to 100 days now, since Trump came back to office," griped The Patriot Voice to his 155,000 Trumpist followers. "First she gets in a car crash, now they say she killed herself? Sounds like someone wanted her dead," Laura Loomer, a conspiracist and frequent Trump travel companion, told her 1.6 million X followers. "Still no Epstein files."
I don’t believe Virginia Giuffre committed suicide.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 26, 2025
Just like I don’t believe Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide.
First she gets in a car crash, now they say she killed herself? Sounds like someone wanted her dead.
Still no Epstein files.
Imagine that.
Other MAGA figureheads are trying to strike a balance between defending Trump and keeping the "Epstein files" conspiracy theory alive. But it's not going well. Donald Trump Jr. blamed the Clintons for Giuffre's death. Alongside all the liberals on X reminding him that Giuffre was recruited by Epstein when she was working at Mar-a-Lago, he was swarmed by right-wing users complaining, "AG Bambi isn’t releasing the[] files" and the "administration should’ve already released the files like they promised." The pressure is getting so bad that both Alex Jones and Glenn Beck released videos begging their audiences to stop blaming Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel or FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino for the lack of "Epstein files."
Despite Trump's extensive connections to the Epstein case, it's easy to see why he and his acolytes were eager to feed MAGA interest in the case. Trump's pitch is that he's an "outsider" here to take on the "deep state" that is supposedly the source of all their woes. Epstein conspiracies, fueled by QAnon prophecies, helped feed this illusion, while also casting Trump as a champion for victims, instead of a man who has been found liable for sexual assault by a civil jury. But a decade into Trump's presidential career, it's getting hard to prop up the illusion that he's still an outsider fighting to get enough access to expose the "deep state." He's the most powerful man in the world, but he can't even get agencies he controls to release some paperwork?
So far, the conspiracists are papering over the contradiction by focusing their ire on Bondi, Patel, and Bongino, rather than Trump himself. The three's efforts to appease the conspiracists aren't going well. "NO, we are NOT moving on from Jeffrey Epstein and the Epstein Files," Bongino insisted in late March on Instagram, only to be met with a chorus of anger that Bondi "blew it" and is all "big talk" but no action. Patel can't arrest Hillary Clinton, the central villain of the QAnon conspiracy theory. (Telling themselves that feminists are the "real" sex criminals is a big part of the appeal of QAnon.) He no doubt hoped that this lust would be satiated when the FBI arrested a substitute older white lady, Judge Hannah Dugan of Wisconsin, on iffy-sounding charges of "obstruction." He even posted a photo of her arrest from behind, maximizing the Clinton resemblance, to feed the misogynist masses on X.
No one is above the law pic.twitter.com/TSrQ4GNMdA
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 26, 2025
As much as MAGA loves throwing perceived feminists in jail, this was not enough to satisfy them. The replies to the post were a pile-on of angry demands that Patel focus instead on arresting Clinton and various other prominent figures they believe were involved in an international pedophilia blood-drinking cult with Epstein. "[H]ow come these people from the Epstein list or not in prison yet?" complained one typical, typo-laden response. Others posted AI-generated images of Clinton getting arrested, in case Patel needed a helpful illustration of what they want.
You are right Kash Patel, no one is above the law, now arrest her, for bribery, fraud, treason , child trafficking and murder. pic.twitter.com/wxjrINHWS1
— Truth Justice ™ (@SpartaJustice) April 26, 2025
Trump voters, of course, have an almost boundless ability to ignore contradictions in their worldview. Still, it's hard to square their belief that Trump is a singularly mighty man sent by God to defeat the infidels, but also that he's incapable of hiring people to fulfill the promise to release the "Epstein files." One can see it in the X discourse under big MAGA accounts. The audience is starting to blame Trump for failing to fulfill the QAnon prophecies that sustain them.
It's impossible to find a post from @AGPamBondi
— Traveling On 𝕏 ⛺ (@TravelingOnX) April 30, 2025
without someone mentioning Jeffrey Epstein. Are you getting the message, or will you continue to mislead us by omission? Please tell us something.
As silly as the Epstein obsessives are, they're part of a larger trend of Trump voters struggling more to suppress pangs of doubt. As Heather "Digby" Parton chronicled, Trump's approval ratings have fallen so fast in his first 100 days that he's making empty threats of federal prosecution against outlets that publish these polls. Semafor's recent exposé of the private group chats of right-wing billionaires shows that the same rich men who got Trump elected are starting to get antsy about the economic ruin promised by his tariffs. Even Fox News is struggling to find something to hype from Trump's first 100 days in office.
even Fox News is having a hard time spinning Trump's first 100 days
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 29, 2025 at 9:29 AM
The preoccupations of the conspiracy-drunk world of the MAGA base aren't just weird entertainment. They're a helpful barometer. These are the people who have done the most work to break their own brains to justify supporting Trump. They're desperate to ignore Trump's long history of bragging about and allegedly committing sexual assault. Instead, they've constructed a fantasy world where he's an avenging angel, and it's the feminists who commit sex crimes. The level of commitment is only analogous to a cult. Now, even these people are starting to worry that their prophesied savior is too busy golfing and setting up a massive financial corruption scheme to care about the conspiracists who got him elected. They aren't yet ready to quit Trump, but it's a good sign that his support may be eroding.
