Trump Spirals After Being Asked if His Name Is in Epstein Files

Asked whether Attorney General Pam Bondi told him his name is in the Epstein files, President Trump doubled down on the far-fetched notion that the whole thing is the product of a Democratic conspiracy against him.

Speaking to reporters, the president revealed that he’d received “a very quick briefing” on the files from Bondi, leading one to ask whether his own name appears in them. (Trump, after all, had a storied relationship with the deceased sex criminal.)

“No, no, she’s given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump replied, before venturing the paranoid notion that the Epstein affair is actually a Democratic plot to take him down.

“In terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by [former FBI Director James] Comey. They were made up by Obama. They were made up by the Biden inf—you know.”

He then deferred to Bondi, who he said has handled the situation “very well.”

“It’s going to be up to her,” he continued. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.” Bondi responded shortly thereafter, telling reporters, “Today, our memo speaks to itself, and we’ll get back to you on anything else. I haven’t seen all of [Trump’s] statements today.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans have blocked Democrats’ attempts to force the release of the files, and MAGA rancor over the matter is going nowhere.

Over the past week, Trump has been enduring a revolt from his political base over a recently released Justice Department memo that deflated conspiracy theories (that his own top officials had previously elevated) about elite figures’ ties to Epstein.

The memo found that Epstein had maintained no “client list” and stated that no more information related to his case would be released. Trump’s supporters predictably objected, with many turning against Bondi.

The president over the weekend pleaded with his “boys” and “gals” to drop the subject. On Truth Social, he suggested, as on Tuesday, that the true Epstein conspiracy is that a slew of his adversaries, such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden, had created Epstein-related, “Radical Left inspired Documents” in order to undermine him.

This new tack—that a MAGA cause célèbre was, in reality, a left-wing conspiracy all along—seems unlikely to dissuade the countless people, across the political aisle, who are now hungrier than ever for answers about Epstein’s death and connections.

Even after President Donald Trump publicly gave her the go-ahead, Attorney General Pam Bondi desperately skirted questions about the release of additional files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Last week, the Department of Justice published a two-page memo declaring that the alleged sex trafficker kept no “incriminating ‘client list,’” despite Bondi previously claiming that she’d been in possession of such a document. After months of being promised answers on Epstein’s clients, Trump supporters are outraged, with some even calling for Bondi to resign.

During a press conference Tuesday about steps the agency was taking to combat drug trafficking, Bondi refused to answer questions about Trump’s statement saying that the attorney general should release “whatever she thinks is credible” from the files.

“This today is about fentanyl. This is about a wall of people right outside this room who have died from—I appreciate your question—but this today is about fentanyl overdoses throughout our country, and people who have lost loved ones to fentanyl. That is the message that we’re here to send today,” Bondi replied to a reporter asking if she would release more files.

“Nothing about Epstein. I’m not going to talk about Epstein,” Bondi said.

She continued to urge reporters to ask questions “only on topic.”

Yet another reporter asked about Trump’s comment. “The president said today you would release credible files related to Epstein. Are you prepared to do that, and when would you do that?” they asked.

“Our memo—today our memo speaks for itself,” Bondi said. “We’ll get back to you on anything else. I haven’t seen all of his statements today.”

“How do you respond to the MAGA base that has expressed a lot of frustration about Epstein?” the reporter pressed.

“We’re going to fight to keep America safe again and we’re fighting together as a team. That’s what’s so important right now,” Bondi said.

Meanwhile, Trump has taken to bullying his allies into line.

House Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic attempt to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files, with zero Republicans supporting the measure. The final vote was 211 to 210. One Republican with a spine would have tipped the scale and given the American people greater transparency on the Epstein saga.

Democrats tried to force a vote on releasing the files, after Republicans struck down an amendment in the House Rules committee on Monday evening. The procedural maneuver, which would have triggered a vote on the amendment requiring Trump’s Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days, was rejected yet again, with all 211 opposing votes coming from Republicans. Nine Republicans abstained from the vote.

The nine Republicans who chose not to vote were: Andy Ogles (TN), Michael McCaul (TX), Thomas Massie (KY), Barry Loudermilk (GA), Wesley Hunt (TX), Morgan Lutrell (TX), Mark Green (TN), Monica De La Cruz (TX), and Buddy Carter (GA).

Even Republicans who have been particularly vocal about the Epstein files, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, voted against allowing debate on the amendment.

Democratic Representative Mary Gay Scanlon offered the motion to trigger the vote on the amendment, which was first introduced by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna.

The Epstein files have become a major point of contention within the MAGA movement, as the base expresses anger and frustration towards the Trump administration for dismissing a case that has fueled their political actions for years now.

Republicans have decided that protecting the president and his friends is more important than fulfilling promises they made to their most loyal voters, and the American people at large. The House GOP had a real chance to take a stand and demand that the Epstein files be released to the public. They chose not to.

This story has been updated.

Mike Waltz at his Tuesday Senate confirmation hearing faced scrutiny for retaining his six-figure White House salary despite being ousted from his post as national security adviser.

Trump in May removed Waltz from his role at the National Security Agency and announced his nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Waltz had by then been embroiled in scandal for months over the “Signalgate” fiasco, in which he created a Signal group chat to discuss classified planned military strikes in Yemen and accidentally added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

And yet, according to the Associated Press, Waltz has remained on the White House payroll, receiving a $195,200 annual taxpayer-funded salary.

Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada brought this up as Waltz testified before the Senate Tuesday, and the Trump nominee hit back with a tried and true Trumpism: fake news.

“Despite being removed from your role as national security adviser in May—removed from your role, right, not working—surprisingly, you’ve been on the White House payroll for the last few months,” Rosen said. “Throughout this hearing, you’ve made assertations that, if confirmed, you would root out waste and unnecessary overhead at the U.N. So, can you confirm for us whether you’ve been receiving a salary from the White House since being let go at the NSA?”

Waltz held that he “was not fired” and was “kept on as an adviser transitioning a number of important activities.”

“So you’re saying that you were not dismissed as was publicly reported?” Rosen asked.

“The reporting, senator, is fake news, which shouldn’t surprise anyone,” Waltz said.

Indeed, a White House official told the AP that Waltz stayed on to “ensure a smooth and successful transition,” and, per Politico, his title was changed to merely “adviser.” It’s unclear exactly what Waltz has been doing for the past few months, yet his six-figure salary has remained unchanged—a situation in which the nominee, who’s promised to bring Trump’s mission against purported “waste” to the U.N., apparently sees no irony.

Former national security adviser Mike Waltz took a page out of Donald Trump’s handbook Tuesday as he presented a wild scapegoat for his involvement in the Signalgate scandal.

During his confirmation hearing to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Waltz was asked about the fallout of mistakenly adding the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a Signal group chat where several high-ranking Trump Cabinet members openly discussed highly sensitive war plans.

“Were you investigated for this disclosure of sensitive operational information on Signal?” asked Connecticut Senator Chris Coons, who noted that it was common wisdom that the app was “not an appropriate, secure means of communicating highly sensitive information.”

“Thank you Senator, and that engagement was driven by and recommended by the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, by the Biden administration CISA guidance,” Waltz stammered, peppering his response with several “uhs” that have been removed for clarity.

“I’m sorry,” Coons cut in. “Was the use of secure information on Signal—”

“The use of, no excuse me, the use of Signal is not only—as an encrypted app—is not only authorized, it was recommended in Biden’s, the Biden era CISA guidance,” Waltz continued, somehow finding a way to blame former President Joe Biden for his own egregious gaffe.

CISA best practices guidance released in December 2024 recommended the use of Signal for “highly targeted individuals” seeking “end-to-end encryption” and protection against cyber attacks. It doesn’t note how to prevent adding journalists from top secret group chats. A 2023 memo from the Department of Defense, however, prohibited the use of Signal and other “unmanaged apps” to discuss “non-public DoD information.”

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker took Waltz to task over another of his weak attempts to pin his enormous fumble on Goldberg. Waltz had previously claimed that the editor’s phone number had been “sucked in” to his phone by “somebody else’s contact.” Waltz also claimed he didn’t know Goldberg and called him “the bottom scum of journalists.”

“You said this journalist intentionally infiltrated that Signal chain. You said that he was ‘sucked in.’ You denied, deflected, and then you did something that really, to me, really lacks integrity, is that you sought out to demean and degrade that very journalist in crass and frankly cruel ways that made him a target,” Booker said. “That’s not leadership, when you blame people that tell the truth. That’s not leadership when you can’t say the words, ‘I made a mistake.’”