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By Jesus Mesa
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Promises of uncovering secret assassination files and naming powerful pedophiles kept the MAGA movement energized for years. Many supporters believed Donald Trump would finally expose government cover-ups once he returned to power. But more than six months into his new term, those much-hyped conspiracy theories have either been debunked or quietly fallen apart.
Trump's second administration has worked hard to deliver on his promises, from mass deportations to new trade agreements. But while those achievements have satisfied much of his base, others have grown disillusioned with his failure to expose the dramatic government secrets they were promised, even as the White House says it is simply being transparent where other administrations have not.
The disappointment has been particularly acute around the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files and the long-anticipated "deep state" disclosures, which have instead reinforced official narratives MAGA supporters once rejected.
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Epstein, the deceased financier, sex offender and friend to the rich and famous, has been at the heart of a sprawling conspiracy theory about child sex-trafficking and the global elite since he killed himself in jail six years ago — a suicide that was reaffirmed by the FBI this month.
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"MAGA really wouldn't exist without conspiracy theories," said Eric Alterman, a journalism professor at Brooklyn College. "These theories don't require evidence. They're about stories people tell themselves to explain why things feel like they're going wrong in their lives."
That expectation of dramatic revelations has become a defining feature of MAGA-era politics. From alleged UFO cover-ups to Epstein's supposed "client list," Trump loyalists — and sometimes Trump himself — stoked the belief that sinister truths would soon be exposed and that the Deep State was partly to blame.
"I'd certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago. They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people ... so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing," Trump said in a campaign-trail interview with podcast host Lex Fridman. "But I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it."
Yet the much-anticipated Epstein review recently released by his own Justice Department concluded there was no client list and no evidence of foul play in Epstein's suicide — a finding that infuriated his supporters and alternative media figures who had built careers around pursuing that narrative.
Even Trump himself appeared frustrated over how much oxygen the topic has been sucking up, suggesting that while he used Epstein to great effect as a wedge issue during the campaign, he is less enamored with spending time on litigating the disgraced financier's past now that he's president. When a reporter pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi on the Epstein findings during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump cut in sharply. "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" he asked in an exasperated tone.
Referring to the deadly Texas flooding that dominated headlines that day, he continued: "I can't believe you're asking a question about Epstein at a time like this," dismissing the inquiry as a "waste" of time and a "desecration."
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment by email Thursday.
'Betrayal'
The idea of an alleged Epstein "list" was turbocharged by Trump's own inner circle, most notably by Bondi herself. In a February interview with Fox News, she claimed, "The list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients is sitting on my desk." Her remark, quickly amplified by right-wing influencers, fueled weeks of speculation online and in MAGA circles.
During a White House visit soon after, Bondi handed out binders of purported documents from the Epstein investigation to various right-wing social media personalities, reinforcing the belief that explosive evidence was about to emerge. FBI Director Kash Patel and Vice President JD Vance were also in attendance that day for the giveaway.
But when the Justice Department memo quietly arrived months later, stating there was no client list and no evidence of foul play in Epstein's death, the backlash was immediate.
On InfoWars, Alex Jones told his audience, "This is over the top sickening. Next they'll say Jeffrey Epstein never even existed. This is the swamp winning. No one is buying this."
Laura Loomer, live on her own stream, accused Bondi of betrayal. "Pam Bondi is a coward," she said. "She didn't even sign her name to the memo. This isn't transparency — it's a cover-up."
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Even among Trump's closest allies, frustration spilled into public view. On his podcast, Tucker Carlson accused Bondi of "covering up very serious crimes" and called the memo "an insult to everyone who believed in this movement."
Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser and still-influential MAGA voice, posed the question others were already repeating: "How does an anti–deep state administration put out something this whitewashed? This is not what people voted for."
And Elon Musk, who had supported Trump before their falling out — and who has suggested, without evidence, that Trump himself was in the Epstein files along with Bannon — added his voice to the uproar. He wrote that his idea of forming a third party came partly from disillusionment over the handling of the Epstein case.
"People can't be expected to have faith in Trump if he won't release the Epstein files," Musk posted. "If the government is protecting pedophiles, it has officially become the government against the people."
On right-wing social media, frustration spilled over in blunt terms. A chorus of MAGA-aligned accounts on X illustrated the sense of betrayal that extended beyond influencers and into the grassroots of Trump's movement.
Various X posters who are otherwise supportive of the president's agenda accused Trump's team of misleading them, with one user writing, "Let's face it. We've been played again." Another added, "We got no DeepState arrests and they literally spit on our face with "No Epstein Client List." Said another: "The Epstein Files will never be released. All evidence of foul play has been destroyed. We have been played. No justice for children, no truth. Nothing."
'Just Getting Started'
The Epstein disappointment is only the latest in a string of failed revelations. When Trump's administration released thousands of pages of JFK and RFK assassination files earlier this year, supporters eagerly combed through them expecting evidence of a "deep state" plot that had been covered up for 60 years. What they found instead were decades-old Cold War memoranda and reports already disclosed by past administrations — no hidden shooters, no confession of a sprawling CIA plot.
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UFO enthusiasts, too, had pinned hopes on Trump to declassify evidence of past alien contact, but the documents his team released pointed to Cold War decoy programs and unexplained radar errors — not extraterrestrials. Even the brief public obsession with the mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey last year ended with the White House saying, after an investigation, they were either authorized for research or flown by hobbyists.
For now, the anger within the base over the lack of fulfilling answers, particularly on Epstein, remains raw. But whether it translates into a lasting fracture within MAGA or simply fuels yet another round of conspiracy theorizing is less certain.
Some observers doubt this moment will be the thing to break the movement, which has been ironclad in its support of the president through all of his trials and tribulations. Even if Trump had done something outrageous, argued Alterman, the journalism professor, his supporters would likely find a way to blame the victim. These conspiracies, he said, don't depend on actual evidence to survive in the public imagination.
"The idea that Trump is secretly fighting a battle on their behalf is more powerful than anything the Justice Department puts out," Alterman said.
Others point out that disappointment has rarely dissuaded MAGA loyalists before. When predictions fail, they often just move the goalposts or insist the cover-up is even deeper, noted Yotam Ophir, a communications scholar at the University at Buffalo. "As long as the conspiracy hurts the other side," he said, "that's enough for most of them."
That dynamic has been evident before. QAnon, for example, made specific claims about a global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles for whom Trump was handpicked by God to reveal. "Q," the anonymous figure at the center of the conspiracy, even set precise dates for "The Storm" and other elements of the conspiracy to happen. None of those predictions came true — yet the movement is still humming along online.
"People folded the failure into the narrative," observed Michael Barkun, professor emeritus at Syracuse University and author of A Culture of Conspiracy. "Instead of disproving it, they said it proved how powerful the conspiracy was."
Still, Barkun acknowledged there is something unusual about the reaction to the Epstein memo among the president's base of supporters. This time, he said, the frustration has been more evident, and high-profile MAGA figures have been more willing to voice it publicly.
"The language is sharper. The frustration is more visible. But whether it lasts, or just gets absorbed like the others, remains to be seen."
Even Bannon, after calling the Epstein memo "not what people voted for," left the door open on his War Room podcast. "We're not walking away," he told listeners. "We're just getting started."
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Update 7/10/25 2:45 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with new information.
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