NBC News reports:

President Donald Trump disowned his supporters who have called for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, chiding them Wednesday as “weaklings” who “bought into this bulls—.”

The lengthy post on Truth Social represents the clearest split from the faction of his MAGA base that has questioned the Justice Department’s handling of the case.

My “PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls—’ hook, line, and sinker,” he said in the post, adding, “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” [Continue reading…]

Politico reports:

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer warned that President Donald Trump’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein threatens to “consume his presidency” in an interview on Wednesday, a dramatic rebuke from a presidential confidante that illustrates the growing rupture in the MAGA coalition.

She likened it to the intense media interest in ties between Trump’s first White House campaign and Russia, saying “I don’t want it to consume his presidency.”

“Obviously, this is not a complete hoax given the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison in Florida for her crimes and activities with Jeffrey Epstein, who we know is a convicted sexual predator,” Loomer told POLITICO. “This is why I said, and I’ll reiterate it again, the best thing that the president can do is appoint a special counsel to handle the Epstein files investigation.”

The debacle over a new government review of evidence relating to Epstein, the notorious sex offender, has blown up in recent days, causing a schism within Trump’s MAGA movement over his administration’s approach to the case. [Continue reading…]

Rolling Stone reports:

Over the weekend, after the president introduced his since-repeated claim that the Epstein files were authored by “Obama, Crooked Hillary,” and other Trump enemies, and therefore it should not be a matter of concern to his base, one Trump administration official conceded: “He is making it very hard for some of his biggest supporters to not think that maybe he really is in the Epstein files.”

The far-right glitterati were not impressed with Trump’s Epstein jiu-jitsu.

“Barack Obama wrote the Epstein files? LOL. This is outright embarrassing,” Candace Owens wrote on X. The former Daily Wire correspondent also sounded off on her podcast. “The Epstein scandal is definitely terminal cancer for the MAGA movement,” she said, adding that “there’s just no making anybody forget about the Epstein scandal.”

The Trump administration is certainly trying. The president over the weekend reportedly called some of the MAGA influencers who had been criticizing Bondi’s handling of the case, including Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. Kirk appeared to fall in line on Monday. “Honestly, I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being,” he said on his podcast. “I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration, I’m gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, ball’s in their hands.”

So did Benny Johnson, who, like Owens, was incredulous over Trump suddenly claiming that Obama is responsible for the Epstein files. Johnson wrote on Monday that he “just got off the phone with a top federal law enforcement contact,” and could report that the administration had heard the voice of the people and to “expect more disclosures.”

Dinseh D’Souza — the right-wing filmmaker and Trump ally behind 2000 Mules, a documentary about the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged — argued on his podcast this week that “even though there are unanswered questions about Epstein, it is in fact time to move on.”

Owens may be right about the scandal’s staying power, though. There are scores of MAGA influencers — from Loomer, to Megyn Kelly, to Dilbert creator Scott Adams, and beyond — who are still incensed over the [DOJ] memo. Gen. Michael Flynn, a leader in the MAGA conspiracy theory community who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, on Wednesday published a lengthy plea for Trump to take the issue seriously. Even Kirk demanded more from the administration on Tuesday, a day after he said he was done talking about Epstein. “We’re not moving on,” he said.

Republicans in Congress aren’t moving on, either. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Benny Johnson on Tuesday that he’s “for transparency,” that he supports the idea of currently incarcerated Epstein partner Ghislane Maxwell testifying before Congress, and that “Pam Bondi needs to come forward and explain it to the American people.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), meanwhile, told reporters he doesn’t “trust” what the Justice Department is saying about Epstein. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of the most notorious conspiracy theorists and MAGA diehards in Congress, told The New York Times that the DOJ’s memo is “a full reversal on what was all said beforehand, and people are just not willing to accept it.” [Continue reading…]