Trump's Epstein fiasco makes sense if you remember this insanity at the heart of MAGA

In July, I said the president triggered a crisis of faith in MAGA. It had been revealed that the US Department of Justice would not release files concerning the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. With that decision, Donald Trump made his most zealous followers choose between him and their imaginary enemies. Since they were never going to stop believing in evil super-Jews conspiring against “real Americans,” he forced them to rethink their trust in him.

On Monday, we saw concrete consequences of that crisis.

Trump spent last week pressuring two key House Republicans, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert, to vote against a measure leading to the release of the Epstein files. He summoned them to the Situation Room, along with the US attorney general and FBI director. (This was after Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House for nearly two months during the shutdown and refused to swear in Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva. She had vowed to be the 218th vote on the Epstein discharge petition.)

Then Friday, Trump attacked the Republican who is probably the most MAGA of all MAGA, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. He said he was taking back “his support and endorsement.” He called her a “lunatic.” He offered “complete and unyielding support” for anyone who would primary her. In another post, he called Greene a “RINO,” who had “betrayed the entire Republican Party when she turned Left.”

Greene did not back down from calling for the release of the Epstein files.

“It really makes you wonder what is in those files and who and what country is putting so much pressure on him,” she said. “I forgive him and I will pray for him to return to his original MAGA promises.”

Then Trump retreated. Early Monday, he said, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files. We have nothing to hide.”

If that’s true, he could order the Justice Department to release the files.

Some are saying Greene is coming to her senses. Others are saying there’s a place for her among the Democrats.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Greene isn’t standing up to Trump. She’s exploiting the crisis of faith that he has created. She’s taking command of the story that brought him to power. She doesn’t care about sex-crime victims. She cares about her position in the GOP after Trump is gone. I think she’s been quietly sussing out possibilities for a while. Monday’s head-on collision with Trump was the quiet part getting loud.

None of this week’s news makes sense if you forget about QAnon.

In that conspiracy theory, Epstein is part of a shadowy group of Jewish super-elites who control the government, corporations and the media. It is so powerful it can commit any crime — including the most heinous, pedophilia and cannibalism — and get away with it, all while conspiring with allies, foreign and domestic, to destroy America.

In that story, Trump is the hero, “the chosen one” who is supposed to save America from enemies so evil that he must do whatever it takes to defeat them, even if that means committing massive crimes himself. Thanks to that story, Trump could broadcast during his campaign all the crimes he was going to commit once reelected (ie, vengeance), and it didn’t matter to the most conspiracy-addled faction of the GOP.

Anything was acceptable as long as Trump defeated the Great Evil.

On the release of the Epstein files, this supposed pedo-cabal (“Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons and medical experts,” per Wikipedia) was supposed to face immediate justice: mass arrests and summary executions.

They called it “The Storm.”

But last spring, US Attorney General Pam Bondi determined that the president’s name appeared too many times in the government’s case against Jeffrey Epstein to risk releasing the files. (Bloomberg reported in August that 1,000 FBI agents reviewed 100,000 documents in order to redact his name. Bondi made her determination after that.)

Trump agreed with Bondi, and once he did, he took his most zealous followers for granted. He failed to consider what he was asking them to do: choose between believing in him, and the heroic role he played in the cosmic story about the fate of America, and believing in the existence of deadly threats to America by imaginary Jewish enemies.

Put another way, he forced them to choose between him and their anti-semitism and they were never going to let go of antisemitism. (QAnon is a 21st-century update of very, very old hatred of Jews.)

In doing so, Trump introduced doubts that have deepened with every revelation about his ties to Epstein. Instead of being the exception to every rule, he seems to be the rule itself. Instead of being the solution to the problem, he seems to be part of it — or worse. Before long, it could be understood that he exploited those who truly fear a phony pedo-cabal to hide his own involvement in a real pedo-cabal.

As long as Trump was a victim — as long as he represented the heroic victimhood of “the nation” — he could be forgiven for anything, even crimes that ultimately hurt his followers. Without the authority that comes with being the exception to the rule, however, efforts to blame his enemies are falling on deaf ears. He has repeatedly tried accusing the Democrats of making up the “Epstein hoax,” as he did with the “Russia hoax,” yet followers don’t look to him. They look to Republicans like Greene who still seem loyal to the One True Faith.

So not only has Trump undermined MAGA's trust in him. He made room for rivals who have been seeking moments of weakness to exploit. Greene presented herself as a true believer who is saddened by the former hero’s fall from grace: “I forgive him and I will pray for him to return to his original MAGA promises.” But she also dared him to reclaim what she had taken: “It really makes you wonder what is in those files and who and what country is putting pressure on him.”

It wouldn’t take much for a figure like Greene to expand the conspiracy theory about a pedo-cabal to include a Russian dictator who is blackmailing the president into covering up a pedo-cabal.

Trump seems to know it. That’s why he balked.

His base is fractured. His rivals are emboldened. His opponents are united. The result was Wednesday's House vote in which members voted 427-1 to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.

How this ends is anyone’s guess. But if this ends badly, it will be due to Trump’s hubris — in taking for granted the conspiracy theory that brought him back to power.