MAGA MELTDOWN

1) From Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling's 7-8-25 NEW REPUBLIC article entitled "Alex Jones Breaks Down in Tears Over Trump’s Final Epstein Report":

Even Donald Trump’s most sycophantic followers are turning on him over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files.

Against the expertise of individuals who had worked on the case for decades, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested in January that the pedophilic sex trafficker had maintained a “client list,” supercharging ideas and theories about which high-powered individuals could have been involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.

But the administration’s language changed abruptly on Monday, when the Department of Justice posted a memo confirming that no such “incriminating client list” existed, undercutting Bondi’s language. Far-right influencers who had absorbed themselves into the details of the case refused to believe that Bondi had misstepped—instead, they interpreted the sudden reversal as an administration cover-up.

“So I’m going to go throw up, actually,” said Alex Jones, the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. “Because I have integrity, and I just really need the Trump administration to succeed and to save this country, and they were doing so much good, and then for them to do something like this, it tears my guts out.”

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

2) From Justin Baragona's 7-8-25 INDEPENDENT article entitled "Tucker Carlson Says It’s ‘Obvious’ Why Pam Bondi Is ‘Covering Up’ Epstein Client List":

Adding his name to the growing list of MAGA luminaries who are irate over the Department of Justice concluding that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide, Tucker Carlson insisted there was an “obvious” reason why Attorney General Pam Bondi was “covering up” the so-called “client list” of the deceased sex offender.

Knocking down a host of conspiracy theories that had become an article of faith in the right-wing media ecosystem, the DOJ and FBI determined in a two-page memo released this week that there was no proof that Epstein was engaged in a vast blackmail operation, adding that no one else would be criminally charged in the case [...].

“The current DOJ under Pam Bondi is covering up crimes, very serious crimes by their own description. Why are they doing that?” Carlson wondered during his most recent podcast, which featured Breaking Points host Sagaar Enjeti.

Insisting that there were “really only two potential explanations” he could think of, Carlson immediately dismissed the first option, which is that President Donald Trump “was on the list” and involved in Epstein’s illicit sexual activities.

“You know, for whatever his sins, I don’t think he’s that guy, actually. I don’t think he likes creepy sex stuff. That’s just my view,” the former Fox News star said. “But more convincing is that this is all information that the Biden administration had. And if there was evidence that Trump had been involved in illegal sexual activity, you think the people who made up Russiagate wouldn’t have leaked it? Come on now.”

Instead, according to Carlson, the government was actually hiding Epstein’s black book because it would reveal his involvement with American and Israeli spy agencies.

“The only other explanation that I can think of, again, maybe you’ve got another, is that intel services are at the very center of this story, U.S. and Israeli, and they’re being protected,” he exclaimed. “I think that seems like the most obvious.”

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

3) From John Bowden's 7-9-25 INDEPENDENT article entitled "JD Vance’s Old Tweets Show Why the ‘Epstein Client List’ Is Becoming Such a Problem for Trump":

President Donald Trump’s team spent a good deal of energy Monday in unfamiliar territory: on the wrong side of a losing battle against America’s extreme online conspiracy theorists.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was the face of the effort at her daily news briefing. But if Leavitt is looking for who is fueling the speculation around the dead New York financier and sex criminal who appeared on camera yucking it up with her boss, she needs to remember: the call is coming from inside the (White) house [...].

Elon Musk, during his public falling-out with the president last month, tweeted and then deleted a message accusing Trump of being in “the Epstein Files”, and said it was the reason the list of Epstein’s famous clients was not being released. His opportunistic charge served to keep the story in the minds of many, and forced a denial from Vice President JD Vance. He renewed his efforts to push that connection after the administration’s announcement.

“First of all, absolutely not. Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein,” Vance said on Theo Von’s podcast. “Whatever the Democrats and the media says about him, that's totally BS.”

On Monday, “Epstein” was the top trend on X/Twitter. Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s occasional White House guests and a semi-adviser responsible for a loyalty purge of the National Security Council, was in trademark venom-spitting mode as she accused Bondi of “incompetence”.

“@AGPamBondi should resign for lying to the American People,” tweeted Loomer Monday afternoon.

There’s no question: Trumpworld has lost the narrative on this one. But there’s a reason why: this is a beast (in part) of its own making.

While Vance is now in the uncomfortable spot of defending his boss from speculation, he was once one of the cheerleaders of the conspiracy himself, and not just as a one-off: it was during his previous appearance on Von’s podcast that the vice president, then a U.S. senator, told his host: “we need to release the Epstein [client] list”.

And on X, Vance was even more acerbic criticizing the Biden administration over the investigation. In late 2021, just months before he would go on to become the GOP nominee for Senate in Ohio, the Hillbilly Elegy writer retweeted a “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist who has gone on to become a fixture inside Trumpworld, Jack Posobiec.

“What possible interest would the U.S. government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret? Oh...” tweeted the nation’s future vice president.

In a second, longer rant aimed at another one of MAGA’s favorite targets, he then added: “If you’re a journalist and you’re not asking questions about this case you should be ashamed of yourself. What purpose do you even serve?”

To read the entire article, click HERE.