When a group of MAGA ‘influencers’ marched out of the Oval Office holding up white binders filled with the ‘Epstein files’, Donald Trump’s base immediately sensed something was off.
Fast-forward to five months later and Trump’s cabinet is cracking wide open with FBI chiefs Dan Bongino and Kash Patel threatening to resign unless Attorney General Pam Bondi is fired.
The biggest names in MAGA media – Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon – have sounded their colossal mega horns over the escalating crisis.
Now ugly fractures are emerging and dirty secrets are leaking across Washington.
In the twisted web of Epstein conspiracy theories, heated anti-Israel rhetoric has emerged at a time when Trump is already facing criticism over supporting Benjamin Netanyahu‘s bombing campaign in Iran.
MAGA lawmakers, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, have been accused of anti-Semitism, while former Fox host Carlson is facing claims that he is taking money from the Qatari government. Greene and Carlson vehemently deny the allegations.
At the end of February, the White House invited a cadre of conservative influencers for a visit, and presented them with big white binders which purportedly contained the oft-touted ‘Epstein files’.
The influencer debacle was led by Bondi at the White House and she later assured the public that her Department of Justice had the dossiers which were being reviewed for release.
U.S. President Donald Trump, accompanied by newly sworn-in U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks to member of the media in the Oval Office at the White House on February 05, 2025 in Washington, DC
Tucker Carlson speaks to a group of 5,000 MAGA supporters at Turning Point USA’s ‘Student Action Summit’ in Tampa, Florida, on July 11th 2025
Undated File Picture: Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell share an embrace
Steve Bannon speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md.
Media personality Megyn Kelly speaks at Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally at the PPG Paints Arena on November 04, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
But it soon turned out that there was nothing at all substantive in the white folders handed to the influencers – and the debacle became known as ‘binder gate.’
Bondi last week was forced to retract her statement that the files were ‘sitting on my desk’ and instead told the American people that there was, in fact, no ‘client list’.
The DOJ released a video showing the outside of Epstein’s cell at the Manhattan jail where he allegedly hanged himself.
But Trump’s MAGA base is still fuming that the Epstein Files have not been entirely released to the public.
Ex-Fox personality turned independent journalist Carlson is one the biggest voices sowing division in Trump’s MAGA-right.
During a speech at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit this weekend, Carlson went after the Trump admin for the alleged Epstein ‘cover-up.’
Conservative pundit Arynne Wexler told the Daily Mail that if you listen to Carlson’s latest speech at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, ‘he’s like the narcissistic, toxic ex-boyfriend, where nothing’s ever good enough and the goalpost is ever moving and you can never reach it.
‘He’s complaining that Trump hasn’t done enough.’
Wexler also added that Carlson ‘even insulted Riley Gaines, talking about how men on women’s sports teams don’t matter.’
‘I mean, there was really nothing about what he said that sounded conservative or like of the right’, Wexler concluded.
Conservative internet personality Arynne Wexler told the Daily Mail that if you listen to Carlson’s latest speech at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, ‘he’s like the narcissistic, toxic ex-boyfriend, where nothing’s ever good enough and the goalpost is ever moving and you can never reach it.
Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly, a one-time Trump enemy turned ally during the 2024 election wrote on X that she was ‘sure it’s a relief for Pam Bondi to hear the president is still in her corner.’
But, she added: ‘Huge swaths of the party are not. She repeatedly misled on Epstein. Then didn’t have the courage to explain herself. Suddenly, she’s camera shy & no Qs allowed. Good luck!’
Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s fiercest media allies, suggested at the Turning Point conference in Tampa that the so-called Deep State would block the president from going near the Epstein files.
‘Epstein is a key that picks the lock on so many things, not just individuals, but also Institutions, Intelligence, Institutions, Foreign Governments, and who was working with him on our Intelligence Apparatus and in our Government,’ Bannon said.
Foreign influence in America’s government and politics is something that has been questioned on both the left and right.
But, some of the biggest characters who point fingers at others have the biggest questions about their own backers.
During Carlson’s Turning Point speech, he sensationally claimed that both Epstein and long-term Democrat donor turned Trump 2024 backer Bill Ackman only gained prominence, and in turn wealth, due to secret ties to the Israeli government.
Ackman notably promptly refuted Carlson’s claims, additionally stating on X that although he used to enjoy Carlson’s Fox show, now the media mogul ‘has gone off the reservation, in particular about Iran, Israel, and the Middle East.’
Bill Ackman, chief executive officer and portfolio manager at Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the SALT conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. May 18, 2017
‘Some say his politics relate to where his business’ funding comes from and some say he just doesn’t like Jews. I have no idea what motivates him and why he appears to be a changed man,’ Ackman added.
Carlson addressed allegations that he was being funded by Qatar in a recent episode of his show, stating that ‘for the record, of course, I’ve never taken a dollar from anybody. I don’t even have investors.’
In 2023, the Daily Mail reported that Carlson’s independent media venture was backed to the tune of $15 million by Omeed Malik, an American citizen with an Iranian mother and Pakistani father.
Carlson and Malik had previous experience in the media business together. In 2020, Mailk joined the Daily Caller as a minority investor/owner and contributing editor.
Within Trump’s own administration, characters loyal to the MAGA base are not afraid to point fingers at their own colleagues.
FBI head Kash Patel and deputy Dan Bongino are both ready to call it quits if Attorney General Pam Bondi keeps her job after the debacle over releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Bongino, the FBI’s deputy director, made the ultimatum after an epic clash with Bondi on Wednesday over the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the Daily Mail revealed this week.
The rift was so bad that Bongino took the day off work on Friday, leading some to think that he had already left his post.
Meanwhile, Trump’s congressional allies are doing their best to play both sides on the issue of Epstein, hoping to remain in the good graces of both Trump and his base, which is undoubtedly splintering.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie-Taylor Greene, one of the typically most MAGA-aligned voices on the right said during an appearance on Real America’s Voice (RAV) last week that she for one wasn’t buying that there wasn’t more to the Epstein story.
‘I think the Department of Justice and the FBI has more explaining to do. This is Jeffrey Epstein; this is the most famous pedophile in modern-day history,’ Taylor Greene told RAV.
‘And people are absolutely not going to accept just a memo that was written that says there is no client list,’ Taylor Greene concluded.
Noting that some MAGA influencers have gone off the rails, Wexler told the Daily Mail ‘that they’re turning the party into what I told my friends the Republican Party wasn’t for the last two decades, and now we actually are, like, they’re just turning the party into exactly what my liberal friends said we are.’
Now, Trump has to sail the rough seas of his own making.
In a post to his Truth Social platform this weekend, Trump tried his best to push for unity in the MAGA camp.
‘We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and “selfish people” are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,’ Trump wrote.
He added that America should ‘not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody nobody cares about.’
Still, his allies may not be truly abandoning him, or just thinking about their own futures and longevity in the realm of public discourse.
Trump is after all 79 years old, with no political future to contend with.
Meanwhile, those criticizing him undoubtedly desire to keep driving public discourse on the right and beyond, long after Trump is out of office.
