'Mounting MAGA rage' over Epstein as 'schisms' form after Trump’s latest shocking claim

As President Donald Trump tries to move America past his scandalous links with late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a historian explained that parts of Trump’s own base are turning on him — and the reasons go much deeper than their disgust over his Epstein connections.

Interviewing historian Nicole Hemmer about “mounting MAGA rage” over Trump falsely claiming to have been “totally exonerated” from the Epstein scandal, Hemmer explained that Trump is trying to paper over a growing rift within his own political movement.

“This very much is about a schism that is happening in MAGA,” Hemmer told Sargent for The New Republic. “And some of the schism predates Epstein, and we’re just seeing it play out. Like, the people who are willing to attack Trump over Epstein already had problems with Trump.”

Sargent and Hemmer pointed out that the Trump DOJ continues to redact large sections of the Epstein files, prompting conservative Republicans like Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky to point out that the agency seems to be breaking the law requiring them to not redact vital information. In response to these allegations, Sargent and Hemmer quoted Trump’s claim to have “been totally exonerated” while also saying it’s “very, very sad” that the UK’s former Prince Andrew was recently arrested for his Epstein connections.

“He’s trying to control the storyline here by repeating that over and over again,” Hemmer said about Trump’s “totally exonerated” claim. “But first of all, we don’t have all of the files. There’s no way to have him ‘exonerated.’”

Hemmer added, “He should have some concern about whether people are going to be prosecuted. But then again, he runs the DOJ in a way that has compromised its independence. So maybe he’s not concerned about it because he knows there won’t be prosecutions.”

Sargent noted the “double whammy” for Trump is that the names already released prove a wide-ranging conspiracy, raising more suspicions about why certain names remain redacted.

“You’re seeing the schisms in MAGA over Trump and over, like, the nationalists versus the MAGA people,” Hemmer said. “You’re seeing that play out through the Epstein files: who they talk about, who they’re willing to implicate, who they’re willing to acknowledge are implicated, and, in particular, what they’re willing to say about Trump himself.”

Earlier this week, the Trump administration took down public access to a document from the Epstein files in which the future president was accused of sexually assaulting a minor. The document detailed how a woman in 2019 told the FBI Trump had forced himself upon her at some point between 1983 and 1985 while she was a minor. Although the agents never verified the woman’s claims, they found them credible enough to initially investigate them.

Similarly, a key file related to those interviews which detailed information the government provided lawyers about convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell has also been removed.

Documents about Trump and Epstein prove that the two men met in the 1980s and continued to be close friends through the 1990s. During a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump described Epstein as a "terrific guy" who he had known for around “15 years,” and according to the Epstein files, the two men "talked at least three times a week” during the mid-to-late 1990s. In the year 2000, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claimed that she was working at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort when Maxwell recruited her to work as Epstein's personal masseuse. Shortly thereafter, she was groomed by Epstein and Maxwell to provide sexual services for Epstein and his wealthy friends.

Giuffre was found dead by supposed suicide in April, although conservative journalists like Piers Morgan have described the circumstances surrounding her death as suspicious.