President Donald Trump answers questions outside the White House in Washington, DC, on July 11, 2025. Credit – Win McNamee—Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the outrage within his party over the Jeffrey Epstein files as “bull—t,” rebuking his own supporters for buying into what he called a “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” and declaring he no longer wanted the backing of “weaklings.”
The post on his social media platform Truth Social marked Trump’s most forceful attempt yet to tamp down an escalating political crisis that has fractured parts of the MAGA coalition, spotlighted internal rifts in his administration, and prompted a growing number of Republican officials to call for the release of files related to the convicted sex offender’s decades-long abuse of underage girls.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bull—t,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote. “I don’t want their support anymore!”
The outburst followed weeks of mounting pressure on Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Justice Department’s reversal on long-promised disclosures related to the Epstein investigation. The Trump Administration has now insisted that no “client list” exists—despite years of signaling otherwise.
Trump’s sharp language and public frustration come at a moment of increasing scrutiny, not just over Epstein’s ties to the powerful, but over Trump’s own history with the financier, whom he once described as a “terrific guy.”
For years, Trump has leaned into conspiracy-laden rhetoric, embracing far-right fantasies about a shadowy cabal of elites harming children and portraying himself as the lone figure capable of unearthing the truth. Many of these theories found a central symbol in Epstein, whose death in federal custody in 2019 under murky circumstances only amplified the sense among Trump’s supporters that powerful figures were hiding something.
Now, with his Administration overseeing the very documents his followers long demanded, Trump has made a sharp pivot—one that has disoriented many of his most ardent fans.
“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “The credible information has been given.”
That message has not landed. Trump’s remarks, combined with Bondi’s shifting explanations and her reported clash with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, have only fueled suspicions of a cover-up.
Less than an hour after Trump published his post Wednesday morning, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, announced she was “proudly” cosponsoring an effort by Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky to bypass House leadership and force a floor vote on releasing Epstein-related files. “I will never protect pedophiles or the elites and their circles,” Greene wrote on X.
Trump ally Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has influenced some of Trump’s past decisions, has demanded Bondi’s resignation and called for a special counsel to investigate the files. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, in a post of his own, pleaded with Trump: “@realdonaldtrump please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away.”
At a Turning Point USA summit last weekend, right-wing commentators Steve Bannon and Jack Posobiec called for transparency, with Posobiec vowing to “go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files.”
Even House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, has tried to thread the needle, telling reporters that he is “for transparency” and wants Bondi to release the full set of documents.
Trump on Wednesday suggested he no longer wanted the support of Republicans who were continuing to question his handling of the Epstein issue. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work,” he wrote. “don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”
The controversy has exposed the risks inherent in the political strategy Trump and his allies have long used: stoking distrust in institutions while wielding them for their own aims. That dynamic has become especially fraught now that Trump is once again in charge of the federal government.
Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 on charges related to soliciting a minor and again arrested in 2019 for sex trafficking before dying in jail, had longstanding ties to powerful figures in both political parties, including Trump and former President Bill Clinton.
In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump praised Epstein as someone who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Though the two reportedly stopped interacting after a 2004 real estate bidding war, questions about their relationship have lingered.
Last month, former Trump advisor Elon Musk publicly claimed that Trump was named in the FBI’s Epstein files, setting off a new wave of speculation. The Justice Department has attempted to clarify that the remaining files include no actionable evidence implicating others and that previous claims about a “client list” were misunderstood. Bondi has suggested the records on her desk were misunderstood to be a list.
Some Democrats have moved to capitalize on the issue, highlighting GOP lawmakers who once demanded full transparency but recently voted down amendments that would have forced release of the Epstein documents. But in his post, Trump, suggested those files were made up by Democrats. “These Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at – It’s all they have – They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates. Also, unlike Republicans, they stick together like glue.”
Meanwhile, the segment of Trump’s base that remains committed to exposing what they see as elite crimes may not be so easily mollified. “For this to go away, you’re going to lose 10% of the MAGA movement,” Bannon warned during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Friday.
As Trump seeks to recenter his second term around more familiar grievances—immigration, crime, the economy—the Epstein files continue to dog him. And his latest declaration that the issue is a “hoax” may only deepen the mistrust among a faction of supporters who once saw him as their ultimate truth-teller.
Write to Nik Popli at [email protected].
The post Trump Decries ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,’ and Those Still Raising Issue as ‘Past Supporters’ appeared first on Time.
