“It’s Sunk Cost Fallacy Meets Betrayal": MAGA's Reaction to the Trump-Epstein Revelations

From Brittany Wong's 11-15-25 HUFFPOST article entitled "MAGA Won't Let Trump Off The Hook For The Epstein Files — And Psychologists Know Why":

No matter how hard he tries to either ignore it or change the subject, the president’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein won’t stop following him — and even part of his conservative base is having trouble grappling with it [...].

Trump had previously promised to release files on Epstein as recently as last year. QAnon conspiracy theorists in his base wonder why his administration is now treating the Epstein files like a nonissue. (Followers of QAnon consider Epstein a key figure in a satanic cabal of pedophiles that includes the world’s most powerful people. Though Trump was friends with Epstein for years, he’s long been seen as the white-knight figure destined to defeat that cabal.)

As more details emerge about Trump’s friendship with Epstein ― back in July, The Wall Street Journal released a report detailing an innuendo-laced birthday letter Trump gave to Epstein, and then it was reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in the spring that his name appeared in the Epstein files ― the president has implored his supporters and the press to just move on.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” Trump shot back at a reporter questioning the administration’s handling of the issue earlier this month. “Are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.”On Truth Social, the president called his base “stupid” and “foolish” for inquiring about Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation. Now, in November, new emails have been released that showed Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct. Team Trump and the president himself have tried to “flood the zone” on social media. But any story or Truth Social post they’ve thrown out to distract Americans from this latest controversy ― releasing thousands of files about civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and a bizarre AI-generated video of President Barack Obama being arrested and thrown in jail ― has failed to make a mark.

Republicans, it seems, are struggling to get out from this news cycle because, for once, it’s their MAGA base that is leading the charge against Trump. (When you’ve lost the support of “QAnon shaman” Jake Chansley, you know you’ve got problems.)

As many have noted ― Trump included, a number of times ― no rules apply to him in Trump world. Though he’s bragged about being able to “grab [women] by the pussy” and been accused of sexual misconduct numerous times, for many in the MAGA movement, Trump is still seen as the avenger of what they deem sex deviancy: gay people, trans people, celebrities and elites they claim are involved in pedophilia rings.

“When we look at the MAGA hardcore, we typically see the pathological ‘othering’ of two specific classes of people: immigrants and ‘sex perverts,’” said Steve K. D. Eichel, a psychologist who studies cults and other cultic relationships. Eichel believes the latter category is mostly the result of a moral panic that is also a projection of significant psychosexual confusion and repression on the part of hyper-religious MAGAs [...].

There’s some sunk cost fallacy going on here, too: QAnon believers have invested so much time and energy into the Epstein files, they’re not going to let go now.

“It’s sunk cost fallacy meets betrayal,” said Natalie Feinblatt, a psychologist who specializes in cult recovery.

“People who’ve poured years of belief, energy and identity into the MAGA and Q world are facing a painful internal contradiction: ‘I’ve given everything to this cause ... how could it betray me?’” she said. “These feelings are especially potent when the betrayal comes from someone you viewed as a savior.”

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

If you want to know exactly how we reached this point, consider reading my 2022 nonfiction book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP, which maps out the anatomy of this ten-year-long campaign of asymmetric warfare directed against the American people by Trump and the cabal of right-wing nutjobs who support him...

PRAISE FOR
OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP

 

"It's great."

--Marc Maron, WTF Podcast

"Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential."

—Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen

"One of the most difficult aspects of confronting QAnon conspiracism is finding the time and resolve to delve into its ever-expanding network of self-reinforcing connections and concepts. Robert Guffey does that work for you in OPERATION MINDFUCK, a codex to madness and a critical examination of how a massive fraction of our culture has imbibed a counter-reality. Guffey also explores underground sources lost on many mainstream historians, bringing us into an (occasionally ingenious) netherworld of outsider thought forms. Guffey is the Ernest Shackleton of paranoia—and one hopes his journey will result in a happier ending."

—Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and Uncertain Places

"It's practically a guide to your character to discover whether you find this expose of possibly the stupidest political movement in human history funny, alarming, or infuriating.... Highly recommended."

—Richard Smoley, author of Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History and How God Became God

"OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP by Robert Guffey tackles the conspiracy theories Q draws from, the history of the Q phenomenon, and the eventual attempts by mobs at least partially influenced by Q, and certainly influenced by Donald Trump, to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. The book is well-researched, with a full Bibliography of notes that reference and identify each quote from each source that Guffey cites. Guffey, additionally, has a long background studying conspiracy theories and their origins [...]. Guffey is not a lightweight."

—Steve Henn, author of And God Said Let There Be Evolution

"Whether QAnon is a religion, a cult, a joke, a political movement, or just an online game gone awry, Robert Guffey's OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP is his attempt to figure it all out. Guffey's pedigree in this area is unmatched [...]. Throughout OPERATION MINDFUCK, Guffey follows Theodore Sturgeon's advice he quoted in his book CHAMELEO: 'Always ask the next question.'"

—Roy Christopher, author of Dead Precedents: How Hip-Hop Defines the Future

 

 "[Guffey's] expertise shines through in every chapter of this book. Operation Mindfuck: QAnon and the Cult of Donald Trump is not only a well written and well researched look into the abyss of bullshit known as QAnon, but it is also very funny and quite sad at the same time—an interesting, entertaining, and sometimes frightening read."

 

--Razorcake 

"If you are still dazed from this [QAnon] business, then Robert Guffey has written a book just for you. In readable yet well researched fashion, he lays it all out: where it began, who, why, how. He can’t make it go away for you—or me, for that matter—but he can make the whole bizarre business a bit less confusing... [T]his book is what you need. Get your fire lit, your cup of coffee (or something far stronger), curl up (in fetal position, if necessary), and prepare to learn."

 

--Seattle Book Mama