Shared Grievances: Trump Temporarily Reunited His MAGA Base Despite Uproar Over Epstein Files

Over the last month, the MAGA base experienced what was seemingly their deepest divide over the release, or lack thereof, of additional materials on the case of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But as the days passed by and the anger seemed to take over the base, the President applied a clever tactic to get his followers back on the same side: unite them over their shared grievances.

A deep mistrust of mainstream media, disdain for Rupert Murdoch and the belief that he had been unfairly persecuted by his political foes were just some of the grievances Trump used to turn his base from questioning his involvement in the Epstein case, back to commitment and full flattery for leading the right-wing movement.

The quick switch was also fueled by a Wall Street Journal article that detailed a decades-old letter with a lewd drawing that Trump allegedly sent Epstein for his birthday, which sent his followers— those who stood by the president as well as those who were discontent over the case— into a frenzy, and rush to their leader's defence.

Stephen Bannon, a former White House adviser to Trump and influential leader of the MAGA base, told The New York Times that the dynamics were shifting in part because the reporting in the story seemed "phony," and because the paper decided not to show Trump a copy of the letter.

"The Murdochs' bizarre assault on the president galvanized his base because of both content and process," Bannon said. "Now we are united as Trump goes on offense— against the Murdochs, the courts and the deep state."

Similarly, Vice President JD Vance, who had previously called for the Epstein files to be released but said nothing amid the backlash to the Justice Department decision, bashed the Journal article.

"Where is this letter?" Vance posted on X about an hour after the story was published. "Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?"

Even Elon Musk, former DOGE head who had a very public falling out with the president and who even accused Trump of being named in the FBI's files earlier this year, said he did not believe the letter was real. "It really doesn't sound like something Trump would say," Musk wrote on X shortly after the story was published.

Some MAGA followers however, say that while the discontent that had divided the base has dissipated, it has not been eliminated, at least for now.

"We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been. And it didn't have to be," Jack Posobiec, a MAGA commentator who emerged in popularity in 2016 when he spread false rumors about a child abuse ring based in a Washington DC restaurant, a conspiracy theory later known as Pizzagate.