Like others before him, Donald Trump has learned that there’s really just no arguing with people who believe the world is run by cannibalistic, child-sacrificing paedophiles.
It is ironic that Trump – who himself rose to power and has governed through use of conspiracy theories, including “birther” lies about where Barack Obama was born – is coming face to face with a conspiracy culture he helped cultivate.
Earlier this month, Trump’s Department of Justice announced that disgraced financier and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein did not keep a client list of co-conspirators, undermining one of the foundational myths that has supported Trump’s presidency. This has enraged the president’s Make America Great Again base and might signal a moment of fracture for the movement.
Conspiracy theories about Epstein are based on the belief that he kept a list of hugely powerful people who had engaged in sex with women and underage girls that he trafficked. This group of individuals, so the conspiracy goes, orchestrated his death in custody in August 2019 to conceal their identities. To many in Trump’s Magaverse, Epstein was a key to understanding how deeply corrupt and perverse the world’s elites truly are. The “Epstein files”, as they exist in the fevered imaginations of Maga diehards, include a list of names of those who must be exposed.
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These narratives share their DNA with QAnon, the all-consuming conspiracy theory that first originated online in 2017 and claimed Trump was secretly fighting the “deep state”: a Satanic cabal of (primarily Democrat) paedophiles running the US government. From fringe sites, QAnon metastasised across the web, pulling in millions who likened Trump to a messianic saviour. QAnon signs began to appear at Trump rallies and supporters evolved into a highly radicalised core of his base.
[ An accuser’s story suggests Trump might appear in the Epstein filesOpens in new window ]
QAnon was one of the first mega-conspiracies to mature entirely in the internet age. Communities were formed on Reddit, documentaries went viral on YouTube and pro-Trump groups on Facebook became incubators for new threads in the conspiracy web. At the centre of it all was the narrative that the entire US government was hiding the truth from the people and holding the country back.
In July 2019, after Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking. QAnon discussions skyrocketed: research from my colleagues in the Institute for Strategic Dialogue documented how, throughout July and August, when Epstein died, he ranked only second to Trump in mentions within QAnon communities on the web.
Trump and Epstein were very close in the past, with the president once calling him a “terrific guy” in one interview. More recently, Trump has been careful to distance himself from claims about Epstein. Yet, ever the opportunist, at times he has indulged some narratives. In 2019, Trump shared a tweet that claimed Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in Epstein’s death. In 2024, when Trump was asked about Epstein’s “list of clients” during a podcast interview, he said he’d have “no problem” releasing it.
QAnon faithful pointed to Bill Clinton’s journey on Epstein’s jet, dubbed the Lolita Express, Epstein’s donations sent to Democrat politician Chuck Schumer and lists of celebrities who allegedly visited Epstein’s Caribbean island.
[ Trump’s name on 2003 birthday letter to Epstein, Wall Street Journal reportsOpens in new window ]
Over time, as QAnon’s prophetic day of reckoning never arrived, energy shifted towards calls to reveal all in Epstein’s supposed client list. In the words of conservative writer David French, “on the right, the Epstein story became the thinking man’s version of the QAnon conspiracy theory”. This was red meat for Trump-aligned media and politicians courting audiences from his supporters. Before Trump picked him as director of the FBI, Kash Patel told one Maga podcaster that members of Congress should “put on your big-boy pants and let us know who the paedophiles are”. Before that, he claimed Epstein’s “black book” was “under the direct control of the director of the FBI”. Dan Bongino, a pro-Trump podcaster turned deputy director of the FBI, built a career out of assertions that federal files on the Epstein investigation contained the answer to the “deep state”. Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general, told Fox News in February that the client list was “sitting on my desk right now”, firing up the wildest hopes of the Maga world.
Each of these individuals leant on sensationalist narratives about Epstein’s connections to elites, painting a picture of mass corruption about to be uncovered. They followed a blueprint designed by Trump on his path to power: embrace fringe theories, gesture vaguely towards cover-ups and make wild promises to reveal hidden truths.
And then, when appointed, each was forced to row in behind the Department of Justice’s announcement that Epstein did not keep a client list, and that no more files related to his sex-trafficking investigation would be made public. A predictable backlash followed.
The Epstein files have become a purity test for Maga diehards and, unable to substantiate the claims they campaigned on for years, these political figures have found themselves cast as the villains they once promised to oust.
Trump has tried to direct the anger of the madding crowd towards old foes in a series of posts on Truth Social; he claimed the “Epstein hoax” was engineered by “Obama, Crooked Hillary and criminals of the Biden administration”. Then, faced with growing Maga ire, he said the Justice Department should release all “credible” information from its probe on Epstein.
Whether or not the list exists, the files relating to the Epstein investigation have been used as cynical props by Trump and his acolytes to curry support with his base. The Maga right has used conspiracy theories as a political tool but they created a voter base that now demands ever more revelations, more exposures and more secrets unveiled. Now, when asked to peel back the curtain on one of the most persistent conspiracies he helped spread, the president baulks.
In another recent post on Truth Social, Trump lamented that his administration is being criticised about “a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again”.
Late on Thursday Trump said he had directed Pam Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury testimony relating to Epstein’s sex-trafficking case, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.
As Trump is learning, conspiracy theories are elastic, self-sealing and practically impossible to disprove. This may be one storyline he’s finally lost control of.
Ciarán O’Connor is a researcher and journalist who focuses on extremism and technology
