A grammatically incorrect outpouring of anger

Hello there,

In his 10 years in politics Donald Trump has incited an insurrection, been found guilty by a jury of sexually assaulting a woman, overseen the overturning of the federal right to abortion, been impeached twice, praised a group of white supremacist protesters, been accused of sleeping with a pornstar shortly after his wife gave birth, made millions from business deals with foreign countries, been convicted of 34 felonies, pressured the president of a foreign country to investigate a political opponent… I mean, I could go on.

Still, the cult Trump created continued to support its master. His rank-and-file supporters came to his rallies (and in one case got his name tattooed on their face), while his political sycophants twisted themselves in knots to praise Trump and support policies they had once criticized.

But this week we found out what it takes to cause a breakdown between Trump and the Make America Great Again crowd: a long-dead pedophile.

Yes, after all Trump’s misdeeds, it is his administration’s decision to not release FBI files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, the hedge fund manager who killed himself in 2019, that has his supporters furious.

The Maga crowd have shown, repeatedly, that they are willing to swallow pretty much anything Trump serves up. But maybe, just maybe, the Epstein files could be an unlikely breaking point.

The death of Epstein, who had long associations with numerous rich and powerful figures, prompted a long-running conspiracy theory among the right wing. The general gist: the ‘deep state’ killed Epstein, a convicted pedophile, to cover-up sexual offenses committed by Democratic politicians and other liberal figures, and the government is hiding a so-called ‘client list’ that Epstein kept of his co-abusers.

That theory, which Trump himself has promoted, was punctured when the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that there was no client list, said it would not release any more files on Epstein, and released a potentially dodgy video that it said proved Epstein did not kill himself.

The uproar was immediate, with rightwing media figures criticising the DOJ and calling for various resignations. And when Trump, who was a close friend of Epstein’s for at least 15 years, tried to quell the anger, urging people on his Maga social media site to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein”, the split between leader and disciples was clear.

“I am done woth [sic] trump. The whole system is rigged. Trump is part of it,” one disappointed supporter commented beneath Trump’s post.

“I don’t understand the reason for your current attitude and frankly I’m beyond the point of caring. I do care about justice, wether [sic] you approve or not,” was the verdict of another, while one person wrote: “Lots of us Trump supports [sic] want it released. Him doing this is a massive betrayal to us.”

There was also dissent in Congress. Trump lapdog and House speaker Mike Johnson called on Tuesday for the justice department to make documents related to Epstein public, an astonishing rebellion from a man who earlier this year hailed Trump as the “most respected president in the modern era”.

Trump’s friendship with Epstein – he once described the financier as a “terrific guy” – prompted speculation about why the president might oppose the files being released.

Whatever the reason, it is undeniable that it is Epstein who has caused the largest split yet between Trump and his base. Asked on Tuesday why his supporters are so interested in the case, Trump responded: “I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. I don’t understand why it keeps going.”

He added: “I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going,” then continued: “But credible information, let them give it. Anything that is credible, I would say, let them have it.”

The Maga crowd have shown, repeatedly, that they are willing to swallow pretty much anything Trump serves up. But maybe, just maybe, the Epstein files could be the unlikely issue that they can’t stomach.