‘A massive cope’: Trump still isn’t winning back his MAGA supporters angry over Epstein

The White House’s attempts to mollify President Donald Trump’s supporters’ growing outrage over the investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein appears to be falling on deaf ears.

Since Trump last week announced that he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of trying to unseal grand jury testimony in Epstein’s criminal case, Republicans and MAGA stalwarts have publicly pushed the administration to release more documents related to Epstein.

Within about the last 48 hours, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) warned that “dangling bits of red meat” is no longer enough for the base. Podcaster Theo Von on Monday took to social media to press Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice President JD Vance to hold a vote this week on a proposal to release files on the Epstein probe. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday told Fox News to “just release it, let people see.”

Even Bondi’s announcement on Tuesday that the Justice Department would seek to interview Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell – who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes – was met with disdain.

“Today’s statement by Pam Bondi seems like a massive cope. Why wasn’t this ‘interview’ with Ghislaine Maxwell done on day 1?” asked conservative commentator and Trump ally Laura Loomer on Tuesday.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ongoing frustration signals that the administration’s attempts to pacify Trump’s supporters and others who are clamoring for more information related to Epstein have thus far failed. Trump acknowledged this over the weekend, posting on social media that releasing the grand jury transcripts, which are subject to a judge’s approval, won’t placate everyone.

“Nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more,” he said.

Though Trump on Tuesday said he was unaware the DOJ was requesting the meeting with Maxwell, he added that “it sounds like something that's appropriate to do.”

Still, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — a lawmaker who has clashed with Trump previously and is pushing for a floor vote on releasing files — has vowed to take matters into his own hands if the administration continues to, in his view, withhold Epstein-related information.

“If the executive branch won’t release phase 2 of the Epstein files, we will. Americans deserve transparency and the victims deserve justice,” Massie posted on X on Monday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday abruptly cut the week’s legislation session short to end the “efforts to politicize the Epstein investigation.”

“We’re not going to play political games with this,” Johnson said Tuesday at a press conference. Earlier this month, the Louisiana lawmaker called for transparency around the investigation, but on Tuesday said “we’re done being lectured on transparency.”

The anger around the administration’s handling of the Epstein investigation indicates a larger sense of discord among the Republican base, especially after the DOJ and FBI issued a memo earlier this month concluding that there was no evidence that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell or kept an incriminating “client list.” Many see the failures around the Epstein case as a prolonged pattern of inaction by Republican leaders.

The Epstein issue was thrust into the foreground on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal published a story alleging that Trump sent a bawdy birthday letter to Epstein years ago. Trump has denied that he wrote the letter and sued the WSJ over the story. POLITICO has not independently verified the letter’s existence.

Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator who has also expressed frustration with the Epstein case but called the WSJ story fake and nonsense, on Monday pointed to a number of issues the base would like to see the administration take action on, including recent claims by Tulsi Gabbard that former President Barack Obama had engaged in a plot to subvert Trump’s 2016 election.

Walsh criticized Trump for recent social media posts depicting Obama in an orange jumpsuit instead of holding the former president “accountable.” Walsh said he is “sick to death” of Republicans refusing to take action against Democrats.

“You cannot allege a treasonous conspiracy and then do nothing about it,” Walsh said. “If I seem a bit cynical here, the typical pattern by Republicans since forever is to make these kinds of claims, but to make them only on social media and Fox News and to never actually bring it to a court of law so the parties responsible can be held accountable for their crimes.”

Walsh added that “funny memes” and sound bites are “not going to cut it anymore.”

For his part, Trump on Tuesday did say that the DOJ should investigate his predecessors, including Obama and Joe Biden.

“Whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people,” Trump said.