MAGA Influencers Spark Civil War Over Epstein Files

The White House’s “Epstein files” stunt is causing a rift in the MAGA movement.

One of the far-right influencers who received a binder from the Trump administration—conspiracy and mommy blogger Jessica Reed Kraus—attacked Laura Loomer Thursday, accusing the pro-Trump influencer of being “jealous” that the president had chosen not to make the contents of the folders publicly available.

“Laura LOOMER calling us pedophile apologists is the last straw,” Kraus posted on her Instagram story. “She has no idea about any of the details we received today and is spewing horrific claims in spite of it.”

Jeffrey Epstein orchestrated a child sex trafficking ring in which he raped countless young girls and helped his wealthy and famous affiliates do the same. He allegedly killed himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019. Earlier this week, Attorney General Pam Bondi pledged to release the details of Epstein’s flight logs as well as a list of his connections to the public by Thursday, though what the Justice Department ultimately posted to its website wasn’t anything that hadn’t already been public for several years.

Donald Trump has achieved Messiah-like status within the QAnon conspiracy circle for years thanks to its principal belief that, despite being named and photographed as an associate of Epstein’s, and despite being found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, Trump will rid the world of Satan-worshipping, liberal-minded pedophiles who run the government and media.

When some MAGA talking heads—including DC Draino’s Rogan O’Handley, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik, Liz Wheeler, and Mike Cernovich—refused to share the contents of the binders after waltzing out of the executive office, Loomer took to social media to accuse the lot of participating in a showcase meant to deceive the American public.

“THEY ENGAGED IN DECEPTION TO RUN COVER FOR PEDOPHILES!!!” Loomer wrote on X. “THEY POSTED SELFIES WITH PROP BINDERS! LIARS AND DECEIVERS.”

The continued botched release of the Epstein list—paired with another stunt by the House Judiciary GOP on Thursday that made a practical joke of the lackluster release—was enough to make some of Trump’s strongest supporters question his leadership.

“If I’m gonna be fair these questions needs to be asked today. Why is the release of the Epstein list always a shit show?” posted Barstool Sports co-founder Dave Portnoy. “What’s the point of booting out illegals and criminals while somehow becoming a safe haven for the Tate brothers? Why is Crypto in the toilet if Trump is crypto king? How far does Tesla stock have to crash before Elon goes back to work?”

Donald Trump’s name has appeared seven times in the “Epstein files” his own administration has released.

The files—released after a photo op with right-wing influencers holding large shiny binders—don’t seem to contain anything that isn’t already public information. They include flight logs, an evidence list, and redacted pages from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s address book.

Trump was first mentioned on page 24 of the first flight log, on October 11, 1993. He was mentioned again, twice, on page 2 of the log on May 15, 1994, as were his then-wife, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany Trump, and their nanny. Each of the listed dates also had Epstein’s own initials on them, suggesting that he was on the exact same flight as Trump for at least three of the seven times Trump’s name shows up in the flight log.

This release has completely failed to live up to the hype. The influencer photo op paired with the obvious lack of new information, along with the knowledge that there are apparently thousands more pages of Epstein files, infuriated the MAGA faithful who’d been waiting for vindication of their sex trafficking cabal conspiracy theories.

A name in the flight log does not confirm or deny any criminal activity, but it does confirm that Trump had a real relationship with the convicted predator, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting federal trial. Attorney General Pam Bondi hinted that more files will be released Friday.

Trump has yet to comment.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez captured the mood of the moment in an interview this week with NPR. 

The New York congresswoman said that these days, government is working very well for the wealthy, while often failing ordinary people. 

“Everything feels increasingly like a scam,” Ocasio-Cortez told the outlet. “Not only are grocery prices going up, but it’s like everything has a fee and a surcharge. And I think that anger is put out at government.”

The congresswoman expressed her anger at the cuts to the federal government that President Trump and Elon Musk have been pursuing for the past month. 

“I mean to the FAA? No. To the NIH? No,” she said. “I actually don’t want someone taking a wrecking ball to someone’s chemotherapy to just see what happens.”

She called out Trump administration officials for threatening to investigate her—and specifically Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, who said last week that Ocasio-Cortez was violating the law by trying “to educate people how they evade law enforcement.”

“I was informing all of my constituents of their constitutional protections and in particular, their constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure,” she said, and had a question for the Justice Department: “Well, there is a member of the Trump administration who is threatening and seeks to open an inquiry. And are you going to do it?”

Ocasio-Cortez told NPR that she sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi after the interview, which said, “I write to request clarity on whether the Department of Justice has yielded to political pressure and attempts to weaponize the agency against elected officials whose speech they disagree with.”  

Donald Trump has now been brutally fact-checked by two different world leaders over his incessant whining about getting a payday from war-torn Ukraine. 

During a joint press conference Thursday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump was once again complaining that the U.S. had been scammed into sending billions in military aid to Ukraine, while other nations were making their money back. 

“We wanted to have a little bit of what the European nations had,” Trump griped. “You know, they get their money back by giving money, we don’t get the money back. Biden made a deal, he put in $350 billion, and I thought it was a very unfair situation.”

“We’re not getting all of ours,” Starmer interjected. “I mean, quite a bit of ours was gifted, it was given.”

Starmer’s correction was nearly identical to a fact-check from French President Emmanuel Macron  during a press conference Monday, when he was also forced to push back against the grievance-addled U.S. president’s false claims that Europe was simply “loaning” their money to Ukraine.

“No, in fact, to be frank. We paid,” Macron said. “We paid 60 percent of the total effort, and it was through, like the U.S., loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear.”

Macron had emphasized that Ukraine ought to be compensated by Russia for the deaths of citizens and destruction of property. 

Trump’s obsession with getting paid back for America’s supposedly humanitarian and military assistance has become a central feature of his efforts to resolve Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine. Never mind how strange it is to demand payment for emergency aid in the first place.

U.S. and Ukraine officials entered the final stages of a contentious mineral agreement, which would funnel half of the Eastern European nation’s rare earth minerals—hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials—into the American market. The deal would serve to pay back some of what the U.S. spent but wouldn’t do anything to ensure Ukraine’s security or economic interests in the future. 

Trump has expressed hostility toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claiming he was enjoying the “gravy train” of U.S. aid and calling him a “dictator.” But on Thursday, Trump claimed he didn’t remember saying that. 

The official social media account for the House Judiciary GOP rickrolled the Epstein files on Thursday.

On the heels of a political stunt in which the Trump administration gifted large binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase One” to a cadre of MAGA influencers, Republicans in office suddenly decided it would be kosher to use the abhorrent sex trafficking case to make a quick joke.

“#BREAKING: EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED,” the official X account for the House Judiciary GOP posted alongside a shortened URL that actually directed users to Rick Astley’s music video for “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

The disgusting gimmick appalled users on the social media platform, some of whom were shocked that the Republican Party would risk the American public’s cybersecurity by sending them down an unknown web address to access highly coveted, classified information.

“Sending the American people to a tiny url that redirects to an unknown destination is a great way to ensure trust in the cybersecurity domain,” posted one user.

For years, Jeffrey Epstein orchestrated a child sex trafficking ring in which he raped countless young girls and helped his wealthy and famous affiliates do the same. He allegedly killed himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019. Earlier this week, Attorney General Pam Bondi pledged to release the details of Epstein’s flight logs as well as a list of his connections to the public by Thursday, though that still has not happened.

“The ‘Epstein Files’ are something of a white whale for the QAnon wing of MAGA, as they believe that its release would reveal the villainous liberal cabal that secretly coordinates international child sex trafficking,” wrote The New Republic’s Malcolm Ferguson. “Many in the conspiracy community believe that Epstein’s death—and the botched release of this list—is part of a greater ‘deep state’ coverup.”

So the White House’s gag earlier in the day, unsurprisingly, ruffled feathers on the far right. After some MAGA talking heads—including DC Draino’s Rogan O’Handley, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik, Liz Wheeler, and Mike Cernovich—refused to share the contents of the binders after waltzing out of the executive office, others on the right were left screaming and scrambling online for actual details related to Epstein’s activities.

“THERE ARE NO EPSTEIN FILES!!!” Laura Loomer claimed on X. “THE BINDERS ARE PROPS. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE RIGHT WING PAID INFLUENCERS LIED TO ALL OF YOU TODAY! THEY ENGAGED IN DECEPTION TO RUN COVER FOR PEDOPHILES!!! THEY POSTED SELFIES WITH PROP BINDERS! LIARS AND DECEIVERS.”