White House threatens Nancy Mace's career for 'helping Democrats' pass Epstein petition

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace at the 2025 Young Women's Leadership Summit in Grapevine, Texas on June 14, 2025 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

President Donald Trump's administration recently issued a veiled threat to one of the Republicans who signed their name onto the bipartisan petition to release all remaining files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

NOTUS correspondent Reese Gorman reported Thursday that the White House is signaling that it may get involved in efforts to oppose Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in next year's Republican primary in the Palmetto State's gubernatorial race. While the president has not yet indicated his intent to get behind any particular candidate in the 2026 GOP primary, Gorman's sources hinted that Mace shouldn't hold her breath waiting for Trump's blessing.

"Helping Democrats deflect from Republican success is not a good GOP primary election strategy," one unnamed White House source told Gorman. Another source said that they "couldn’t imagine a dumber strategy to get Trump’s endorsement than doing what she did this week."

Mace, who is opting to leave Congress next year to pursue higher office in her home state, maintained that while she was a steadfast supporter of Trump, she felt compelled to sign onto the petition out of solidarity with Epstein's victims, due to her personal experience as someone who was assaulted in her teens.

"The Epstein petition is deeply personal. When I was 14 I was molested by a friend of one of my coaches and sexually assaulted at 16," Mace wrote on her official X account. "I was violently mugged months later. I dropped out of high school at 17 because I had nothing left to give. But God helped me turn things around."

Mace signed the bipartisan discharge petition with three other Republicans: Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who is one of the cosponsors of the petition alongside Rep. Ro Khanna. (D-Calif.) Trump unsuccessfully tried to convince Boebert to withdraw her name from the petition in a Wednesday meeting in the White House's Situation Room — which is typically only used for national security crises. The petition officially reached the decisive 218-signature mark after Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) added her name following her swearing-in ceremony.

According to Ballotpedia, Mace is in a crowded GOP primary for the governorship, having to compete with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R), U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and South Carolina Republican state senator Josh Kimbrell.

Click here to read Gorman's full article in NOTUS.

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