President Donald Trump’s firm base is starting to show some cracks.
Over the weekend, right-wing media personality Charlie Kirk and the granddaddy of the MAGA movement, Steve Bannon, asked a large audience of young conservatives one simple question about the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“Raise your hand if the Epstein thing is very important to you,” Kirk asked the crowd gathered at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, Friday.
In response to Kirk’s question, the entire crowd immediately raised their hands, with some having “two hands up,” according to a video published on Kirk’s YouTube account.
This was not the only time the crowd at this summit was asked about their outrage over the Trump administration’s handling of files related to disgraced financier Epstein.
Another clip, which is making the rounds on X, formerly Twitter, shows Kirk, Bannon and far-right influencer and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec asking the audience the same question and receiving the exact same response, with Kirk noting “every hand has gone up.”
The Trump administration is facing an onslaught of backlash from its own fanbase for going back on its promise to release Epstein’s rumored “client list.” Many in Trump’s base believe that Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, used this list to blackmail powerful figures.
Some MAGA followers also believe that Epstein did not actually die by suicide and was murdered in jail as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Earlier this year, many on the far right thought that their Epstein conspiracy theories would be validated when Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed she had the so-called client list on her desk.
But last week, MAGA got a big ol’ dose of “whomp whomp” when the Department of Justice said in a memo with the FBI that there was no evidence Epstein had such a list, and that security footage from his jail cell confirms he died by suicide.
The whole kerfuffle has left MAGA followers reeling — yet they don’t seem to be blaming the president for the fiasco. Rather, Bannon attempted to distance the president from the apparent fumbling of the Epstein files during his appearance at the Student Action Summit Friday.
He rallied the crowd to “save President Trump’s presidency” from the “deep state,” a term referring to shadowy cabal that some on the right believe operates within the government.
“If we don’t take down the deep state, we’re going to lose the entire country,” Bannon yelled to the crowd. “And they think they’re winning. They’re laughing at us right now! They’re laughing at you! They’re mocking you!”
Bannon and Kirk suggested to the crowd that another Trump loyalist should take over the Epstein investigation as a special prosecutor.
“Matt Gaetz would be the best,” Bannon told the cheering audience, referring to the former conservative lawmaker who withdrew his name from consideration to be Trump’s attorney general amid allegations that he attended sex parties with minors.