Trump is Calling Friends to Tell Them to STFU About Epstein

President Trump would have called some of the biggest profiles and, generally, most influencers Maga faithful in recent days to tell them to stop talking about the famous Epstein files and sloppy management by his administration of their release. This comes as more and more Republicans at Congress try to walk on a tightrope, supporting the president while saying nothing that could upset the online hordes of Trump supporters they need.

CNN reported during the weekend that Trump had called Maga Influenseur and right-wing agitator Charlie Kirk, founder of the group of far-right young people for Maga supporters, Turning Point USA. Trump would have responded to Kirk remarks during the weekend at a rotating event in Florida where Kirk told a crowd of his supporters that he supported the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino. It was roughly when reports suggested that Bongino was preparing to offer his resignation, he was so unhappy with the prosecutor General Pam Bondi not to make all government investigation files on the sex offender, sentenced Jeffrey Epstein.

“Abundance was said this weekend during our event about Epstein,” Kirk told his podcast listeners on Monday. “Honestly, I have finished talking about Epstein for the moment. I will trust my friends in the administration, I will trust my friends in the government to do what must be done, solve it, the ball in their hands.”

Bongino, Kirk and many other Maga influencers now named have hindered various conspiracy theories, including those on the crimes and death of Epstein, when they made themselves famous. They were part of a cohort of influencers who was particularly enthusiastic about Trump’s ability to make the “customer list” of Epstein public who, she applied, would exhibit a bunch of rich and powerful people as pedophiles. These rumors and their adjacent Qanon themes were adopted by many in the base of Trump, which supposed that their candidate was going to erase everything (despite his longtime friendship with Epstein). We still do not know why Bondi has chosen not to disclose the entire investigation files, but the official reason is that an “exhaustive exam” of the files has found no new proof for additional costs and no list of supposed sex traffic customers. An FBI memo last week also suggested that the release of more documents could reveal the names of the victims.

Obviously, many Magaheads do not buy it, including, apparently, Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI. Trump says he called him too.

“I spoke to him today,” said Trump on Sunday when he was made information on the reports of Bongino’s interest to resign. “Dan Bongino, very good guy. I have known him for a long time. I have made his show many times. He looked great, in fact. ”

We do not know if the Bongino is still in contradiction with Bondi on the Epstein saga. The anchor of CNN and chief correspondent of the White House, Kaitlan Collins, said on Monday evening that it was still an open question in Trump’s White House on Monday morning, if Bongino was going to remain as deputy director, although he presented himself to work Monday after not having presented the previous Friday.

“No, it is not clear even for the managers of the White House, Anderson, who sent us SMS and sent me SMS this morning by asking him, you know, if they had determined or not if he had been at work today because it was still an open question in Washington this morning if he was back to the FBI today,” Collins said in response to a question of CNN Anderson Cooper.

The gap that emerged between Maga’s influencers, the deputy director of the FBI (perhaps) and the rest of the Trump administration forced many republican members of the congress to make fun of their way to have a kind of position on the issue – which will not alienate their supporters online, while not breaking with Trump. Some have hung on a representative of the representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), whom she would like to set up a private vision of the documents at the Doj. Others have led all anger they have leaps.

“If the Attorney General is aware of the people who have committed sexual crimes with the minors, she should continue them,” Scott Desjarlais (R-TN) told NBC News.

While the Republican management has remained quite firmly on the side of Trump since last week, the president of the Mike Johnson room (R-La) has broken a little with the president in a podcast interview published today.

“I am for transparency,” Johnson told the right -wing influencer Benny Johnson. “It’s a very delicate subject, but we have to put everything there and let people decide.”

The Republicans, however, voted unanimously against democratic efforts to make public files.

To what extent is it just one thing among Maga’s most online members?

The friend of TPM and journalist Sarah Posner, who wrote a lot on the Christian right, has published an interesting thread on Bluesky today suggesting that this Maga Rift on Epstein files cannot be translated during the ballot box.

While the Saga of Epstein files can be a hill defining the brand on which Many Maga influencers online, including the influencers of Maga who direct the FBI, how many republicans cared? The conservative Americans of everyday, including the white evangelicals, are enthusiastic about other things that the Trump administration does, she says, even if they do not particularly like the way Epstein stuff has been managed.

You can read the whole thread here.

But there again …?

The new CNN survey shows that around half of Americans are “dissatisfied” with the amount of information that Trump administration has published on Epstein surveys. The survey was led by SSRS in the days following the MJ memo. By CNN:

Almost no one is satisfied with the amount that the government has shared: only 3% of Americans say they are satisfied with it. An important part of the public says that this does not matter for them anyway (29%) or that they have not heard enough about the case to say (17%).

[…]

The survey shows that Republicans in general are less likely to say that they are not satisfied with shared information than Democrats or independents. Overall, 56% of Democrats and 52% of the self -employed say they are dissatisfied. Among the Republicans, 40% are dissatisfied. Almost as many Republicans say that this does not matter for them anyway (38%), a group larger than a quarter about a quarter that felt this way among the Democrats (27%) or the self -employed (26%).

In case you missed it

New from Emine Yücel: the adjustments of the White House and the troubled promises help the Senate Gop Holdouts to embrace the Doge Cups

The IRS builds a vast system to share millions of data from taxpayers with ice

Not just the big and beautiful bill: Trump policies could take health insurance from 17 million

How a court of appeal has miserably failed to defend the rule of law

The most read story of yesterday

OK, Welp… Epstein / Wolff Edition

What we read

The Senate confirms that officials who called Obama “a terrorist leader” for the Pentagon staff chief

House Gop blocks the second dem Try to release Epstein files

American inflation accelerated in June while Trump prices increased prices