'Defectors': Trump officials worry Epstein scandal will tank crowd sizes

President Donald Trump has long had an obsession with crowd sizes, angrily accusing media outlets of pushing "fake news" when they reported that former President Barack Obama's January 20, 2009 inauguration drew a much larger crowd than Trump's on January 20, 2017. Years later, Trump obsessed over the size of the crowds that former President Joe Biden attracted in 2020 and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris attracted in 2024.

Now, according to Daily Beast reporter Janna Brancolini, officials in the Trump White House are worried that the controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein investigation will hurt Trump's crowd sizes.

"Americans give President Donald Trump low marks on his handling of the controversy, which has dominated headlines for weeks after the Department of Justice and FBI announced earlier this month that the evidence showed conclusively that the disgraced financier died by suicide and did not keep a 'client list,'" Brancolini reports in an article published on July 30. "The (Trump) Administration's failure to produce new revelations in the case has infuriated many of the MAGA faithful, who have long believed Epstein was murdered in his cell while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking to protect his powerful associates…. White House officials are now worried that even a relatively smaller number of defectors could hurt Trump's efforts to sell his equally unpopular budget bill to the public, The Washington Post reported."

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Brancolini adds, "The president could begin holding rallies as soon as next month to tout the legislation, the newspaper reported."

Trump, Brancolini notes, "has repeatedly exaggerated the number of people who attended his first inauguration."

"At the same time, he has lashed out at his own base for their continuing interest in the Epstein case, calling them 'weak' and saying he doesn't care if they stop supporting him," the Daily Beast reporter observes. "The (Trump) Administration has attempted to deflect from the Epstein saga by offering up half-baked claims that former President Barack Obama masterminded a treasonous conspiracy against Trump back in 2016, but even that could backfire with MAGA if officials over-promise and under-deliver."

Brancolini adds, "A senior White House official admitted to the Post that with a certain 'very small segment' of Trump’s base, the Epstein issue 'will never die down, no matter what.'"

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Read the full Daily Beast article at this link (subscription required).