Trump, who once fueled conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein, now bears their brunt
Epstein died in prison in 2019 pending a trial on federal accusations of sex trafficking. The New York Legalist has tried his death a suicide, but conspiracy theories claiming that “Epstein did not kill himself” began to spread almost immediately.
Trump has used conspiracy theories for political purposes since he presented himself to the presidency, when he attracted false claims that Barack Obama’s birth certificate was false. Since then, he and his supporters have adopted or at least entertainment a wide variety of bizarre claims, with a lot of centering on children’s abuse. During his last presidential campaign, Trump said that he would have “no problem” to examine a list of Epstein customers – a list which, according to some people, exists and which contains the names of powerful Epstein customers.
Trump relied on the state of mind of the conspiracy, by appointing high -level positions that also used conspiracy theories to make major accusations of corruption and abuse, in particular the director of the FBI Kash Patel and the deputy director of the FBI Dan Bongino.
“No one has exploited these questions more than Donald Trump,” said Russell Muirhead, professor at Dartmouth College who wrote on the online intersection of conspiracy theories and policy. “And he did it because, as always, he wanted to paint civil servants like liars, as selfish, as liberal ideologists, like people who deserve to be dismissed. Well, now, the government officials are people he has named, and now he says:” Hey, there is nothing to do here. “”.
Suspicions concerning the treatment of the Epstein case and his death agreed online in the political spectrum for years. The expression “Epstein has not killed itself”, a refutation to the official explanation of the death of Epstein, has taken on a cultural sense beyond the facts of the case, appearing in recent years everywhere, vacation decorations and stickers with internet memes.
Joseph Uscinski, A professor of political science at the University of Miami, who wrote a lot about conspiracy theories, stressed that the claims of dark groups abusing children have existed for millennia, with Epstein theories only a more recent and high -level example.
“These ideas were there,” he said. “We just didn’t pay attention.”
The public interest in everything that concerns Epstein has remained high since last week, when Axios reported for the first time that a two -page memo of the Ministry of Justice presented a conclusion that an “exhaustive exam” of Epstein documents found no evidence of an “list of incriminating customers” or evidence to pursue other people related to him. He also confirmed that Epstein had died by suicide.
The memo inspired a large quantity of rewards rewarded with Trump supporters, which led to exhortations of Trump supporting the Attorney General Pam Bondi and by questioning the continuous interest in Epstein – a counterpoup which was only exacerbated by the social post of Trump’s truth.
Together, the combination led to a viral agitation sustained during the last week which was almost essential online, from Reddit and Youtube to X and even to the own truth of Trump.
Some of these disorders have moved offline.
During the weekend, during the USA Conservative Student Point Student Action Summit, Epstein’s discussion was inevitable. Clips of this event, with people openly recovering the credibility of the administration, have also spread to social networks. In a live recording of the Podcast of the Steve Bannon War Hall at the conference, a participant told the former CEO and main advisor to Trump’s campaign that he believed that “now Trump had become the deep state”, saying: “What is more deep than covering for pedophiles?”
There is not much that the White House could make to suppress the answer. On Instagram, the White House has limited the possibility of commenting with GIFs on its official account and the @potus account, after the users continued to publish GIFs representing Trump and Epstein together.
USCINSKI noted that Trump and those responsible for his administration did not go their favorites by attracting the flames around Epstein, especially around the death of Epstein, only to be said to stop talking about it. But he added that Epstein theories broke out beyond partisan lines in a way that other conspiracy theories have not done so.
“Their audience listened to them because they told them what they already believed,” USCINSKI said about Trump administration officials. “Now that they tell them something different, they don’t want to accompany him.”
