'This will not just go away': Trump is 'bleeding trust' among MAGA loyalists
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks at U.S. President Donald Trump as he speaks during a bilateral dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured), at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
Axios reports the "Trump administration is bleeding trust over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, and that the president is drifting out of step with the movement he built."
"This will not just go away,” an anonymous MAGA media figure told Axios. "… The Epstein situation is sending massive ripples through the base. Trust is being lost. … Mostly the people around him, but somewhat Trump.”
The source added that anything about Epstein “just blows up,” primarily because people “were promised Epstein files and they've been lied to over and over and over again."
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The MAGA base was initially taken by surprise when Trump’s own Justice Department determined the sex trafficker died by suicide in 2019 and had no “client list” —particularly one that could incriminate certain politicians. Days after the announcement riled MAGA, Trump’s dismissive attitude is still fueling feelings of betrayal.
Axios reports Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Steve Bannon to be among Trump’s allies who are accusing the administration of a cover-up.”
“[E]ven MAGA's most loyal foot soldiers are struggling to explain how top Trump officials could close the Epstein case after promising — for years — that it would expose shadowy global elites,” Axios reports.
For now, much of MAGA still can’t bring itself to blame the White House occupant who heads the whole administration and instead feels "gaslit" by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, reports Axios. Bondi, the former AG for the state of Florida, lacked deep ties to the MAGA movement before joining Trump's administration and claiming to have Epstein’s "list of clients" sitting on her desk.
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FBI director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino, however, were deeply entrenched in the MAGA movement, and MAGA prefers to believe they are “being silenced” or that the Biden administration is somehow affecting the release of the Epstein files, Axios reports. There is also no indication from Axios sources that MAGA “will defect from Trump himself in serious numbers.”
See the full Axios report at this link.
