For well over a decade, Donald Trump has thrived on conspiracy.
He questioned Barack Obama’s birthplace and citizenship, claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him without a shred of evidence, and has endorsed and promoted far-right figures who gleefully stoked the lie that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring from the basement of a pizza restaurant.
These weren’t fringe ideas muttered in back rooms or basements. They were central to Trump’s political theatre – designed to paint his opponents not just as wrong, but satanically evil.
So when the President recently told reporters he didn’t understand why his supporters are interested in late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, dismissing the entire saga as ‘a very boring story’, the response from the conspiratorial base was, predictably, swift and furious.
From InfoWars and Telegram channels to MAGA influencers and mainstream news, the reaction boiled down to one thing: how dare he?
Today, Trump ramped up his criticism, saying that the discussions around the former banker were a ‘scam’, labelling it a ‘bulls**t Jeffrey Epstein hoax’ and urging his supporters not to be ‘hoodwinked.’
Well, tough luck – conspiracies can’t be controlled. Not even by Trump.
Let’s remember, Epstein’s story isn’t boring – it’s horrifying.
A convicted child sex trafficker with friends in high places. A mysterious prison death. A long list of alleged enablers and abusers still unnamed, still unaccountable. Rumours (encouraged by Trump and his allies) of a blackmail ‘client list’ held by Epstein.
People are obsessed because they should be. Because justice, clearly, hasn’t been served.
The President has made a rod for his own back. He fuelled the fire for years, and not just on this.
He platformed figures who are prominent in the QAnon conspiracy movement (which believes, among other things, that President Trump is battling satanic elite paedophiles), posted cryptic messages about ‘the storm’ (a QAnon dog whistle), and appointed people like Mike Flynn who actively amplified such theories.
Trump’s years of conspiracy indulgence were based on set rules: suspicion by association, trust no institution, and believe only him.
But now, scrutiny has edged closer to Trump himself – with people on the left and right revisiting his long-standing friendship with Epstein, sharing those awkward photos and the quote where he called Epstein a ‘terrific guy’ who liked women ‘on the younger side’
Suddenly, the President is no longer interested.
You can’t unleash a monster and then act surprised when it turns on you.
Trump made himself the hero of the anti-elite, anti-paedophile crusade.
But when people apply that same lens to his own past, he retreats. And not with his usual bluster, either.
Lately, Trump’s tone has changed. Usually, he has his supporters eating out of his hand. Now, he’s reduced to begging them not to be ‘taken in’ by a ‘hoax’ he endorsed.
But this isn’t a rebrand. It’s fear.
Trump’s scared. Because his supporters are asking questions he can’t answer with a soundbite or a slogan.
And the timing couldn’t be worse for him. Public frustration over Epstein hasn’t faded – it’s deepened.
It’s not just that Epstein was a monster, although he was. It’s that the system seemed to protect him. He maintained his network of powerful friends even after conviction. He secured sweetheart deals.
And he died before a trial could truly begin and victims could get even a whiff of justice.
The result, instead of accountability, is a vacuum, into which QAnon and other conspiracy movements poured.
The thirst is twisted into the kind of pure fantasy that defined ‘pizzagate’ – a satanic cabal of baby-eaters apparently led by Hillary Clinton in secret bunkers under a pizza shop – and Trump as the saviour. Total fiction, rooted in real fury.
But the emotional truth remains: people feel that the powerful get away with everything.
Trump capitalised on that anger. Now, he’s the one looking over his shoulder.
The nature of their friendship, the timeline, and when exactly Trump stopped calling the paedophile financier a ‘terrific guy’ are all under scrutiny.
The same scrutiny that was, in Trump’s own way, the fair questions that he demanded be asked of the Democratic elite.
Now, with Trump in power once again, Republican lawmakers have voted to block a Democratic effort to force the release of the Epstein files, which amounts to a mythological cache of apparently undisclosed information about the convicted sex offender at the centre of American politics for over three decades.
The Epstein files may be buried, but the case is still open – if not legally, then morally. Survivors are still waiting. Names are still redacted. And trust in institutions is still on life support.
Trump doesn’t now get to call this ‘boring’.
He wanted to be the one to expose the rot. He told his base he was the only one who would clean it up.
Now, faced with their anger, he shrugs and calls it dull.
He isn’t bored. He’s terrified.
And he should be.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.
