How Trump deflected MAGA’s wrath over Epstein, at least for now

President Donald Trump walks to a bill signing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, July 16, 2025. Trump asked the attorney general last Thursday to seek the court’s permission to release pertinent grand jury materials relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s indictment for sex trafficking. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

By Erica L. Green

In the week after the Justice Department walked back its promise to release the full collection of files about disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, it seemed there was nothing President Donald Trump could do to quell the fury of some of his supporters.

He tried to coax them as he defended his attorney general against their wrath, asking “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals’?” He said he did not understand their interest in the case, downplaying it as “boring.” He even castigated them as “weaklings” and disavowed them as “PAST supporters.” Still, the backlash kept building.

But when The Wall Street Journal published a story detailing a decades-old letter with a lewd drawing that Trump allegedly sent Epstein for his birthday, Trump got a respite from the revolt, as some of his core supporters rushed to his defense.

Trump turned one of the most fractious moments for his base into one of the most unifying by tapping into other MAGA grievances: the deep mistrust of mainstream media, the disdain for Rupert Murdoch and the belief that the president had been unfairly persecuted by his political foes.

Almost immediately, many of those who had been critical of the administration’s handling of the Epstein case cheered the president on as he vehemently denied the claims, sued the Journal and ordered his attorney general to seek the release of more information.

Trump’s allies in the hard-right, “Make America Great Again” movement — known as MAGA — said the discontent that had divided the base had dissipated, but had not been eliminated, at least for now.

Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to Trump and influential leader of the MAGA base, said the dynamics were shifting in part because the reporting in the story seemed “phony” and because the paper decided not to show Trump a copy of the letter.

“The Murdochs’ bizarre assault on the president galvanized his base because of both content and process,” Bannon said. “Now we are united as Trump goes on offense — against the Murdochs, the courts and the deep state.”

Vice President JD Vance, who had previously called for the Epstein files to be released but said nothing amid the backlash to the Justice Department decision, bashed the Journal article.

“Where is this letter?” Vance posted on the social platform X about an hour after the story was published. “Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?”

Even Elon Musk, who accused Trump in a now-deleted post on X of being named in the FBI’s files this year after the two had a falling out, said he did not believe the letter was real. “It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say,” Musk wrote on the platform shortly after the story was published.

Trump, who has denied sending the letter and has maintained that he does not draw despite having auctioned several sketches for charities, sought to make the story about something bigger than himself. He cast his decision to sue the Journal as being in the national interest.

“This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media,” he wrote in a social media post shortly after the lawsuit was filed.

Laura Loomer, another one of Trump’s influential, far-right supporters, said in an interview that although many supporters remained frustrated by the lack of promised transparency in the Epstein case, the news story, which she believed “falsely accused” the president of writing the letter, “reunited” the MAGA movement.

She said it made Trump’s followers realize: “Hey, we may be frustrated with Attorney General Pam Blondie, as I call her, but Trump is still our guy.”

Loomer, who has directed her criticism at Bondi rather than Trump over the handling of the case, said she believed that Trump was able to quell the outrage by eventually listening to his base.

Shortly after the story was published, Trump announced that he was directing Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Epstein, who was convicted of paying teenage girls money to perform sex acts, and hanged himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019. (Trump said he was doing so “based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein.”)

“His latest statement was a way to regroup and reaffirm to the MAGA base that he’s listening to their concerns,” Loomer said, “and he’s going to do what he can to address them, even if he wishes people would move on from the subject.”

Over the weekend, Trump appeared to revel in his ability to win back his base, claiming in a social media post Sunday that his support had surged among Republicans since what he called “the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” blew up.

But he seemed to wonder if his response would be enough.

“I have asked the Justice Department to release all grand jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval,” Trump posted Saturday. “With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!”