As the fallout continues over the Department of Justice’s decision not to release the Epstein Files, with the MAGA base appearing to fracture over the issue, President Donald Trump could lose the support of a key component of the coalition that put him in power, pundits warned.
The “Manosphere,” typically identified as Joe Rogan and a group of fellow podcasters, is not pleased with the administration's handling of the Epstein case, wondering what happened to the conspiracy theories propagated by Trump and others now in his administration.
The backlash against the president’s attempt to suppress conspiracy theories about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein grew to calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s firing, amid a reported feud with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who is said to have threatened to resign in protest.
While Trump has tried to move on from the issue, anger among this core part of his base appears to show no sign of abating.
In an appearance on The Jim Acosta Show on Substack, veteran pundit Matt Lewis spoke with host Jim Acosta about the danger for Trump that those supporters could move on, and that could prove “dangerous.”
“I think what’s really dangerous for Donald Trump here are the last part of the coalition that kind of came together in 2024, call them the Manosphere, right?” Lewis said. “You’ve got this guy, Andrew Schulz, you’ve got Joe Rogan, you got Theo Vonn, they were really important for bringing kind of apathetic, non-political people into the Trump fold.”
Acosta added: “They were attracted to Donald Trump by his frat boy antics and his locker room talk and his bulls***, and they like somebody who bulls**** around the golf course.”
The former CNN anchor then riffed off the 2000 movie, Dude, Where’s My Car, saying: “The Manosphere is like… Dude, dude, where’s my conspiracy theory?”
He continued: “Where’s my– where’s Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott, you know, where are my Epstein Files?”
Said Lewis: “Absolutely, I think there’s a danger that they peel off because they were not, you know, dyed in the wool Republicans. And I think — you were talking about how they liked they liked Trump’s demeanor — they were also just turned off by the left, you know, by kind of the woke left that told them you can’t use this language. You can’t call people the R-word.”
He added: “But they’re not hacks, you know, and I think they’re they’re gonna push back on this one.”
Acosta, clarifying that it is wrong to say the R-word, noted: “There are some things that are considered woke by those guys that they just need to come around to and be like, hey, you know … we aren’t just going to be cruel to other people.”
After giving ICE detention center ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ as an example of how horrible it is to treat other human beings in a horrendous way, Acosta added: “I think you’re absolutely onto something, and I think it’s the space to watch right now. Watch the Joe Rogan space. And I have to think that this has Trump petrified right now. I think that’s part of the freak out.”
On Tuesday, Rogan ripped into the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files on the latest edition of his podcast.
“They’ve got videotape and all a sudden they don’t,” Rogan said. “You had the director of the FBI on this show saying, ‘If there was [a videotape], nothing you’re looking for is on those tapes,'” referring to FBI Director Kash Patel’s interview with Rogan in June.
“Why’d they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s***? Why’d they say that? Didn’t [Attorney General] Pam Bondi say that?” Rogan said during Tuesday’s rant.
Bondi told reporters in May that there were tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn and hundreds of victims.
Conspiracy theorists believed this was a reference to material used to blackmail influential people; however, the Justice Department and FBI announced in their July 7 memo: “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
Trump faces mounting criticism from his political base over the DOJ’s failure to release much-hyped records in Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation. He has responded by lashing out at them.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” the president wrote on his Truth Social site Wednesday morning.
He went on to say: “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats' work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Although parts of the president’s base have clamored for more information about the Epstein case, Trump has made it clear that he’s done with the story.
“It’s all been a big hoax,” he said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “It’s perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net.”
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