simmering anger over epstein files in maga circles, trump escapes most backlash
On a Saturday afternoon, 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin—who worked as both a golf course groundskeeper and an illustrator—left his North Carolina home to begin a 10-hour drive south to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Early the following Sunday morning, official reports confirm Martin entered Mar-a-Lago property carrying a shotgun and a can of flammable fuel. He was shot and killed on site by U.S. Secret Service agents and officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
According to friends, Martin was an open, vocal supporter of Trump. His cousin told the Associated Press: “We are big Trump supporters, all of us” — though they added that Martin rarely discussed politics in daily conversation.
Law enforcement has not shared public speculation about Martin’s motive, but texts obtained by TMZ show he sent a message to a coworker just days before the incident that read: “I don't know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable. The best people like you and I can do is use what little influence we have. Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it. Raise awareness.”
His former coworkers told TMZ Martin became fixated on the Jeffrey Epstein case after the U.S. Department of Justice released more than 3 million documents and photos tied to the disgraced financier the prior month. They said Martin was convinced a cover-up was underway, and that powerful connected people were “getting away with it.”
While Martin’s violent actions were a uniquely extreme outlier, a widespread, simmering anger has been building among Trump’s MAGA base over the federal government’s underwhelming response to the release of the Epstein documents. Right-wing influencers, media personalities, and even politicians have directed this frustration not at Trump, but at other top U.S. leaders including Attorney General Pam Bondi, former advisor Steve Bannon, and FBI Director Kash Patel.
In recent days, on X and pro-Trump message boards, Trump supporters have slammed Patel for failing to deliver on his promise to hold all people named in the Epstein files accountable.
“There’s arguably never been a point in history where an FBI director had more on his plate than right now, yet the American people see no results, just some guy partying in a place he shouldn’t be,” one user wrote in response to Patel’s X post about attending an event with the U.S. men’s Olympic ice hockey team.
“I agree with [the] criticism,” wrote a user on The Donald, the rabidly pro-Trump message board, responding to a thread about backlash against Patel. “In the game of justice he’s been unable to score a single point, 0 arrests for Epstein … He’s scum.”
In another Epstein-focused thread, a member of The Donald wrote: “Meanwhile, Kash is in Italy getting drunk.”
Most of the right-wing media ecosystem, which relies on Trump’s goodwill to operate, has almost entirely steered clear of critical coverage of the Epstein files. Still, prominent far-right figures have continued to criticize the administration, though none have gone so far as to directly attack Trump.
“The Trump administration engaged in a failed coverup of the Epstein files,” white nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes said recently on his show, adding: “Pam Bondi needs to be impeached.”
Pressure on Patel and Bondi has only grown following the arrests of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) and Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the U.S. Both men are under investigation in the UK on suspicion of “misconduct in public office” tied to their connections to Epstein.
“The UK has officially done more to prosecute Epstein predators than our own government. Shameful,” South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace wrote on X.
“Now we need justice in the United States,” Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie — who has frequently clashed with the Trump administration — wrote on X in response to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest. “It's time for @AGPamBondi and @FBIDirectorKash to act.”
Bannon, who currently holds no official role in the administration, has also been targeted by far-right influencers after the latest files revealed he had a close relationship with Epstein, including providing advice on how to handle public sexual abuse allegations.
“Steve Bannon has now been totally exposed in the Epstein files,” right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro said on his show. Benny Johnson, another prominent right-wing figure, added that the relationship was “not a good look.” Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, says he has distanced himself from Bannon, who Tarrio accused of “aiding and abetting Epstein.”
Bannon did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Despite all this backlash, Trump himself has so far largely managed to avoid anger from his MAGA base.
That is partially because conservative media rarely covers the topic extensively, meaning Trump supporters who only rely on right-wing outlets for news simply do not hear updates about the Epstein files. A poll conducted by Marquette Law School earlier this year found that only 49% of people who relied on conservative TV channels for news had heard “a lot” about the Epstein case, compared to 75% of those who got their news from other mainstream network outlets.
“MAGA media is a personality cult that revolves around the president’s whims, and the closer a right-wing commentator is to power, the more likely they are to follow Trump’s directives and talk about anything else — unless what they’re saying is that he’s been ‘exonerated,’” Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at media watchdog Media Matters, told WIRED.
With no arrests to date, many loyal MAGA supporters have fallen back on conspiracy theories to explain the lack of accountability. In the days after the latest document release, the long-debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory — which falsely claims Democrats ran a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor — was revived after the word “pizza” was mentioned in several newly released documents. This was enough for conspiracy theorist and podcaster Tucker Carlson to confidently write on X: “It looks like Pizzagate is basically real,” before later backtracking on his show: “I was wrong, obviously.” Even with the retraction, the episode has been viewed 2.5 million times on YouTube, while the promotional post for the episode on X has racked up an additional 4.9 million views.
“Some MAGA people are definitely still pissed about how Trump has handled Epstein,” Mike Rothschild, an author who writes about conspiracy theories and extremists, told WIRED. “But many others have just moved on and think it's all a big Democratic hoax. For a bunch of ‘free thinkers,’ they're the most easily led people you can imagine.”
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