Now It's Epstein Forever [View all]

July 15, 2025

Through a spectacularly ham-handed series of moves, the Trump administration has ensured that Epstein conspiracy theories will never really end.

Anna Merlan Senior Reporter

“We’re on one Team, MAGA,” Donald Trump wrote on TruthSocial over the weekend, “and I don’t like what’s happening.”

“We have a PERFECT Administration,” he added, “THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again.”

Dead billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has indeed been experiencing a remarkable moment of renewed relevance. An unsigned memo from the FBI and Department of Justice, first reported by Axios on July 6, said the government concluded Epstein was not blackmailing powerful people, did not maintain a “client list,” and was not murdered. Chaos and outrage ensued, and now, thanks to continued missteps by Trump and his administration, will continue more or less forever.

The MAGA base, especially its more QAnon-y quadrants, feel deeply betrayed and increasingly suspicious by what they see as an unforgivable level of inaction and obfuscation on Epstein from the Trump administration. “Please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away,” General Michael Flynn tweeted recently at Trump. (While Flynn has denied being a QAnon believer, he was an early promoter of elements of the conspiracy theory before disavowing it; he continues to make claims about a secretive group of evildoers engaged in child trafficking and sexual abuse.) “You’re going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement,” warned former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. At the Turning Point USA conference in Florida over the weekend, much of the crowd booed when asked if they were satisfied with Trump’s handling of the Epstein case.

FULL story: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/jeffrey-epstein-files-pam-bondi/


Mother Jones illustration; Davidoff Studios/Getty