Here's why MAGA won't abandon Trump over Epstein

By Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University — Newark.

President Donald Trump signed the wide-ranging One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2025. It focuses on cutting taxes, mainly for households that earn US$217,000 or more each year, as well as increasing funding for military and border security and revamping social programs.

Republicans tout it as providing “an economic lifeline for working families” and “laying a key cornerstone of America’s new golden age.”

Democratic lawmakers argue that, in reality, Trump’s act “steals from the poor to give to the ultra-rich.”

The act is estimated to increase the country’s debt by more than US$3 trillionover 10 years, while knocking more than 10 million people off Medicaid.

About 41.4 million adults in the U.S. receive Medicaid. And 49% of Medicaid recipients who voted in the 2024 election backed Trump.

While 94% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said in a May 2025 survey that they are worried Medicaid cuts will lead to more adults and children losing their health insurance, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents expressed concern about this, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll.

Why, then, do Trump’s Make America Great Again supporters — especially those who will be hit hard by cuts to food assistance programs and health care, including hospitals — continue to support him even as he enacts policies that some think go against their interests? Indeed, over 78% of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters say they support the measure Trump signed.

As an anthropologist who studies MAGA and American political culture, I understand that many of the MAGA faithful believe that Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime leader who is catapulting the U.S. into a new golden age.

Sure, their reasoning goes, bumps in the road are expected. But they think that most of the criticism of Trump and this latest bill is ultimately fake news spread by radical leftists who have what some call Trump Derangement Syndrome, meaning anti-Trump hysteria.

Trump alone can fix it

In the eyes of the MAGA faithful, Trump is no ordinary politician. To them, he is a savior who can help ward off the threat of radical left socialism. They believe Trump’s proclamation: “I alone can fix it.”

Some see Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024, as evidence he is divinely chosen to lead the country. Trump himself claimed during his second inaugural address, “I was saved by God to make America great again.”

As I have repeatedly observed firsthand at Trump rallies and MAGA gatherings and heard in my conversations with Trump supporters, many Trump supporters – even those whom Democrats contend will be hurt by the bill – see the bill as a key step to making America great again. Doing so will not be easy and may cause some pain.

But as Trump himself has noted about policies such as tariffs, “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

‘Fake news!’

Even if the bill may cause some short-term pain, MAGA stalwarts contend, the apocalyptic claims of critics of massive health cuts are hoaxes spread by the radical left media. White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, for example, dubbed the Medicare cut claims “a big fake news story.”

This view, based on my research and observations, is unsurprising. Trump has been pushing the “fake news conspiracy” theory, which holds that the media is part of the deep state, since his first term. He even dubbed the press “the enemy of the people.”

Trump’s fake news rhetorical strategy has been successful in helping him maintain support. Trump supporters take it for granted that negative news coverage of the president is most likely fake news.

The Trump administration frequently invokes this conspiracy theory, including statements with headlines like “100 Days of HOAXES: Cutting Through the Fake News.”

The White House is taking the same approach with the new legislation. In June 2025, the Trump administration issued a statement stating “Myth vs. Fact: The One Big Beautiful Bill” and “MYTHBUSTER: The One Big Beautiful Bill Cuts Spending, Deficit – and That’s a Fact.”

There is already evidence that this depiction is resonating in places such as rural Nebraska, where many residents do not blame Trump for a health clinic that claims it is shutting down due to Medicaid cuts.

“Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” said one woman of the clinic’s closure.

‘Crushing it’ in the Golden Age

More broadly, the MAGA faithful contend, the bill’s critics miss the bigger picture. For the most part, Trump has been “crushing it” while putting “‘W’ after ‘W’ on the board.”

From their perspective, Trump has assembled an all-star Cabinet team that is implementing key pillars of the MAGA agenda, such as restricting immigration, blocking unfair trade and avoiding drawn-out wars.

Trump supporters underscore the president’s accomplishments on immigration. Attempted unauthorized border crossings of migrants have plummeted in 2025, amid a rise in arrests of immigrants.

“Our message is clear,” stated Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

Gas prices are also down. Trump has followed through on his pledge to supporters to purge what he calls the deep state, by downsizing or gutting entire government departments and agencies.

Trump has clamped down on woke universities that brainwash students, as MAGA supporters see it.

He withheld funding from the University of Pennsylvania until it agreed to ban transgender women from playing on women’s sports teams. Trump also cut $400 million in funding for Columbia University because the administration said it did not sufficiently protect Jewish students from harassment during Palestinian rights protests.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in July for his diplomatic work in the Middle East.

Recounting Trump’s foreign policy achievements, one conservative commentator gushed that Trump “promised we would win so much we’d get tired of winning. Instead, the wins keep coming — and America isn’t tired at all.”

Trumpism = Trump

Yet, Trump faces challenges.

A June 2025 KFF Health Tracking Poll found that support for the new legislation decreased when people were informed about its negative health care impact, for example.

Republicans could also face backlash in 2028 after the full impact of the act takes effect and people lose health insurance and other public benefits.

Regardless, I believe MAGA faithful will likely continue to support Trump.

They may argue over parts of his bill, the airstrikes on Iran or the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

But, in the end, they will circle the wagons around Trump for a simple reason. Trump created the MAGA movement. He dominates the Republican Party. And there is no Trumpism without Trump.