While President Donald Trump has faced blowback from his core supporters before, his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair might be a bridge too far, writes The Bulwark in an op-ed published Thursday, and could lead the president to pay a “real price” for stoking a “crisis of MAGA faith.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen large numbers of MAGAs willing to suspect the worst of Trump personally,” writes journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. “It’s a sea change. That can’t be unthought, even if it can be repressed.”
Trump has been under fire in recent weeks over his Justice Department’s report that concluded no evidence existed that Epstein maintained a client list. The Trump administration also signaled no further information related to the case would be released, despite that being a campaign pledge of his and many in his cabinet.
In the op-ed, writers William Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift note that conspiracy theories have often been at the heart of many of Trump’s most loyal followers, particularly that of QAnon, a conspiracy movement that suggests a secret cabal controls global events, and that Trump is actively fighting against it.
Among the many baseless theories purported by QAnon followers is that a vast pedophile ring controls the US government, with Epstein – alleged to have maintained a client list of powerful people for blackmail purposes involving human and child trafficking – playing a central role in that conspiracy.
However, with Trump now dismissing any theories around Epstein as being a Democrat-manufactured “hoax,” the op-ed authors suggest Trump may pay an actual price this time for disregarding a theory so central to his core supporters’ beliefs.
“When Trump derided the Epstein matter as the ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,’ that was a bridge too far,” the op-ed reads.
“That could mean only one of two things: either Trump’s gone over to the other side and is now a part of the coverup. Or Trump is now telling the truth. But if it really was a hoax all along – well, were all the conspiracies hoaxes? Was Trump insincere in promoting them? Were his supporters deceived? Was his son deceived? Was his vice president deceived? Is MAGA itself just a hoax?”