On Wednesday night, five top Trump officials—Vice President J.D. Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel—reportedly planned to meet at the Vance residence to discuss the administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. That meeting was ultimately rescheduled, and according to CNN, Trump advisers are hopeful that the MAGA base's furor over the administration's botched handling of Epstein is dissipating.
That remains to be seen: Thus far, Epstein has been the rare subject where Trump-friendly commentators in alternative media do not automatically take the president's side. Joe Rogan, Matt Walsh, Tim Pool, Andrew Schulz, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and others have all criticized the administration's approach.
Yet Trump has proven remarkably adept at grinding down wayward right-wing pundits' willingness to resist him. In the immediate aftermath of the January 6 riot, even staunchly Trump-loyal conservatives leapt to condemn the violence at the Capitol and Trump's role in it. After four years of Trump steadfastly maintaining that he did nothing wrong—and fuming at any Republican who says otherwise—few prominent conservatives are still willing to blame the riot on Trump. If I had to guess, I'd predict the Epstein story will be the same: Eventually, Trump's contention that it's a fake issue planned by the Democratic Party to ensnare him will prevail in the MAGA verse. You'll see the notable conservative podcasters echoing Trump's line about a plot by James Comey and Barack Obama and opposing Democratic politicians' calls to release the files. Just wait.
