ArcaMax

For all of his high-profile connections to presidents, moguls and royals, Jeffrey Epstein probably couldn’t have imagined just how politically important he would one day become.

The long-deceased convicted sex offender and pedophile is at the epicenter of a seemingly seismic blowup inside MAGA, in which splintering factions are now revolting over the botched release of the so-called “Epstein files.”

After promising for years that Democrats and other subversive elements were conspiring to suppress the truth about Epstein — namely that he kept a list of high-profile clients and that he didn’t kill himself in prison — many of those same MAGA voices are now insisting there’s no “there” there.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who once said that the client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review,” and that there were “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child porn,” is now saying there’s nothing to see here.

FBI heads Kash Patel and Dan Bongino once stoked the flames of the Epstein conspiracies on podcasts when they were mere citizens. Now that they’re inside the administration, they too are saying there’s nothing to it.

For his part, Donald Trump is angrily telling his MAGA supporters to move on and forget about what he’s calling the Epstein “hoax” He’s even said of those who still believe the “bulls­-­-­t,” “I don’t want their support anymore!”

But other MAGA influencers, like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and Dave Smith, are keeping the fever dream alive, refusing to drop the conspiracy, and demanding more answers from the DOJ.

There’s even a rift inside the administration, with Patel and Bongino reportedly angry that Bondi hasn’t been fired.

On a near-daily basis, I’m asked whether all this infighting will be the demise of MAGA. Is this the thing that will finally weaken Trump and his grip on his base?

I’m sorry to say, but the answer is an unequivocal no.

There are four reasons why.

First, we’ll divide MAGA into two groups: voters and influencers.

Among MAGA voters, there are (generally) two kinds: issues voters and cult voters.

For issues voters, the 2024 election told us they really only cared about two things: the economy and immigration. They tuned out much of the rest of the campaign noise, whether it was pet-eating migrants or trans bathrooms, and they disregarded Trump’s personal failings, including his criminal convictions.

For this group — and the first reason why Epstein won’t destroy Trump’s base — nonsense like this didn’t matter to them then, and it won’t matter to them now or in the midterms.

The other contingent are Trump’s cult voters. They most definitely are here for the conspiracy theories, all the extracurricular things that make Trump appealing. For these folks, Taylor Swift was a deep-state psy-op, JFK Jr. was coming back from the dead to run with Trump, the government is killing people with chemtrails, and Bill Gates created COVID-19 so that he could put tracking chips inside of vaccines.

While they’re bummed Trump and Bondi are now trying to take away their Epstein conspiracy, they too aren’t going anywhere.

Why? Because they’re in a cult. When the doomsday prediction from a cult leader doesn’t come true, adherents don’t pack up their Nikes and find another cult. They stay, they believe the cult leader’s explanation, and wait dutifully for his next prediction. Trump’s conspiracy theory cultists don’t need proof to stay.

The other half of MAGA are the influencers, people like Owens, Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon and others.

Inside this group, there are also two kinds: true believers and grifters.

For true believers, who are now saying, “This isn’t what I voted for!” and “I regret my vote!” let’s pretend we believe them, and that for some reason, they believed in Trump’s promises. They’re mad now, but the midterms are 15 months away. Epstein will be but a memory by then. Moreover, where else are they going to go? To the Dems? To establishment Republicans? Please.

Finally, the fourth group: the grifters. These people have made a lot of money pushing Trump’s baseless conspiracies for years. They’re not ditching that gravy train. Their performative outrage now is purely to keep their subscribers. But just as they conditioned them to believe in their conspiracies, they’ll condition them on to the next outrage. Just you watch.

These four groups represent the four reasons MAGA is going to be just fine when the dust settles. They either don’t care, can’t leave, have nowhere else to go, or are making way too much money to break off.

Sorry to disappoint. But it sure is fun to watch them go at it.

========

(S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.)

©2025 S.E. Cupp. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.