President Donald Trump has not minced words when it comes to his frustration with his supporters who are now criticizing his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files — but that might not mean much to those on the receiving end of his fury, experts say.
During a White House briefing on Wednesday, Trump said that “stupid” and “foolish” Republicans still inquiring about Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation are doing the Democrats’ work for them. He dismissed speculation about the case as the “Epstein hoax.” In a post on his Truth Social platform earlier that day, the president unleashed on Republicans and his “PAST supporters” for buying into what he called “bullshit.”
“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!” he wrote.
Asked the day prior why he thinks some of his supporters have been upset with the way his administration has handled the Epstein records, Trump told a reporter that “only pretty bad people” are forcing the issue.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, died in federal prison one month after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019. Members of Trump’s own administration had fueled public interest in his case, and Trump himself suggested on the campaign trail in 2024 that he’d take a look at opening up the government’s files on Epstein.
But the Justice Department and FBI announced in a memo last week that Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” and that no more files related to the investigation would be made public, which infuriated much of Trump’s base.
We spoke with experts on the matter, and some think Trump’s searing insults directed at his own supporters won’t rattle many loyal MAGA fans.
Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, told HuffPost that he believes “motivated reasoning is really powerful.”
“Many Trump supporters have convinced themselves that Trump is playing 5D chess and that he says things that he doesn’t literally mean so as to accomplish some other goal or ends,” he said.
“If the past is any indication, his supporters will mainly cave — or forget about the whole thing,” said Dan P. McAdams, the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology and a professor of human development and social policy at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
“Where are they going to go? They are not going to become Democrats,” he told HuffPost.
But McAdams, author of “The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning,” said that he concedes that “the Epstein case casts a strong and mysterious spell on a subgroup of the base, reflected in the views of Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
“Some of these folks may continue to fulminate about the issue, as it strikes such deep chords of paranoia and conspiracy thinking,” he said.
On the other hand, the Epstein issue “might well be the crack in the MAGA base that many have wondered would ever come,” said Todd Belt, professor and political management program director at The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University.
“It’s never a good idea to insult your supporters,” he told HuffPost. “Conspiracy theorists have a tendency to dig in rather than move on when confronted.”
“Some of these conspiracists still believe the conspiracy and are giving Trump a pass by focusing on Attorney General Bondi,” he continued. “Trump could have let them do that and deflected attention from himself, but with the name-calling, they will probably soon turn on him because nobody likes to be denigrated.”
What might Trump’s recent attacks say about how he really views his supporters?
McAdams, referencing a 1981 People magazine interview with Trump, said that he believes the president thinks that “most people are stupid and foolish — and vicious.”
Trump was quoted telling the publication at that time that he believes, “Man is the most vicious of all animals, and life is a series of battles ending in victory or defeat. You just can’t let people make a sucker out of you.”
“There is a long history, moreover, of Trump insulting his supporters, or people who eventually became his supporters, with little penalty to pay. Think: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, JD Vance,” McAdams told HuffPost.
He said that he believes Trump is an “episodic man” who focuses on winning each day or each moment, with very little concern for yesterday or tomorrow.
“What he said on Wednesday was for the purpose of winning on Wednesday. Thursday is a new day, a new moment, a new episode, and there are now new battles to win,” he said.
McAdams believes that Trump’s approach to life renders it “meaningless” to analyze what he truly believes.
“When you live in the moment, fighting to win the moment, you are not encumbered by the need to be consistent, loyal or truthful,” he said. “It is incredibly liberating to live this way. Trump has mastered this way of life like no other politician has ever mastered it.”
Neiheisel said that Trump has always believed that his base will “follow him anywhere.”
“That may largely be true, but who knows for how long that will end up being the case,” he said.
“Trump’s appeal was predicated on this populist image that he cultivated for himself. It is difficult to play that role if you are seen as protecting powerful interests over the public demand for information.”
- Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor, University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences
Belt said that he thinks Trump is frustrated that his supporters are not moving on from the Epstein issue as “he has commanded them to do.”
“He obviously expects loyalty from his base, but I don’t necessarily think that he thinks they are all stupid,” he said, adding that he thinks his recent comments should be read in a larger context with Trump’s other frustrations, like with criticism he’s received on foreign policy issues.
“Trump sees himself as a ‘leader’ rather than a president, and he thinks nobody should stand in the way of his agenda,” he said. “Moreover, he thinks the Epstein issue distracts from his accomplishments and the accolades he thinks he is entitled to for them.”
How might Trump’s insults affect him and the GOP overall?
Neiheisel said he “wouldn’t be surprised to see such insults hurting his approval among the base.” He later said that the Epstein files were “something of a campaign promise” for the MAGA base.
“Additionally, much of Trump’s appeal was predicated on this populist image that he cultivated for himself,” he said. “It is difficult to play that role if you are seen as protecting powerful interests over the public demand for information.”
Belt said that some of the president’s supporters believe conspiracy theories surrounding the Epstein files “and see Trump as the savior who would crush it.”
“For Donald Trump to appear to be involved in covering up misbehavior by global elites (Epstein and his powerful ‘client list’), Donald Trump seems to be becoming the very deep-state problem that animated his voters in the first place,” he later added.
Belt also emphasized that “MAGA Republicans running for election next year will have to answer to their voters on this issue,” which is why “we are seeing some of them break with the president.”
The more “Trump keeps the topic in the news with the name-calling, the more it will probably fracture his base, which Republicans dearly need to placate for the midterm elections,” he added.
McAdams doesn’t think the Epstein case “has the scope to affect the consciousness of mass numbers of MAGA folk,” but said there’s still “a small but very vocal group for whom this is a very big deal.”
Overall, he thinks that there’s a subset of Trump supporters “who expect Donald Trump to keep them stimulated, excited, amused, or enraged day in and day out, as if his presidency were a reality TV show,” and that the controversy surrounding the Epstein files “is the latest instantiation of the show.”
“But Trump has suddenly canceled the show. There was so much build-up for an exciting new season,” he later continued.
“This sector of Trump’s supporters eagerly awaited the next installment, ready for thrill and outrage, and now that has all been taken away from them,” he added. “They are deeply disappointed and angry.”