Donald Trump is facing growing unrest within his MAGA base after promises to release secret Jeffrey Epstein documents fell apart.
Anger among Trump supporters has intensified after Elon Musk reignited conspiracy claims on his platform, X.
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“What the hell kind of system are we living in if thousands of kids were abused… and yet none of these abusers are even facing charges? Just release the files as promised,” Musk posted on X.
On Monday afternoon’s episode of The Briefing, we sat down with US politics expert David Smith who said the fallout has caused “a huge amount of disappointment among Donald Trump supporters”.
Epstein, a wealthy financier with ties to celebrities, royals and politicians, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for child sex offences.
Smith said Epstein’s connections with powerful figures fed conspiracy theories, particularly among followers of QAnon.
“The idea was that Trump would expose a secret cabal of paedophiles…and Epstein was central to that narrative,” he said.
Earlier this year, Trump ally and Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed she had the “client list” ready for release.
And now the FBI has claimed that the list does not exist.
“Donald Trump himself has been photographed with Jeffrey Epstein and had this notorious quote about how ‘Epstein loves beautiful women even younger than I do’,” he added.
“The political conspiracy went a lot further, that very powerful people had actually been directly involved in Epstein’s crimes and that Epstein had been able to blackmail them. And they tend to do whatever they can to shelter Trump from blame.”
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