WASHINGTON — Facing backlash from MAGA supporters about the handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump and his administration have released a flood of information on old grievances and issues popular with the base.Overnight, Trump used his Truth Social social media platform to attack Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., post a fake AI-generated video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested by the FBI and share AI-generated mugshots of a variety of Democratic officials who have served as Republican bogeymen over the years. Trump also weighed in on another MAGA favorite — the names of sports teams — and threatened to try to block a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the Commanders changed their name back to the Redskins. The team dropped that name in 2019, after years of criticism that it was racist. The intensity of the Epstein conversation has dampened since last week, after the Trump administration had to contend with many of its MAGA supporters who were furious that officials weren’t releasing more information about the Epstein case. On Friday, Trump sued The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch after the paper published an article saying Trump sent a letter to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that included a drawing of a naked woman.By Monday, many prominent MAGA social media accounts appeared to have moved on from the Epstein issue, focusing instead on some of the other topics that the Trump administration has been pushing.“Saying Trump posts random stuff to distract is like saying the sun rises to mess with your sleep schedule,” a former Trump adviser said. “It’s just what it does.”On Friday, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard revisited the 2016 election, calling for several Obama aides to face prosecution related to Russian interference in that campaign.“As is always the case, President Trump was right about the Obama-Biden administration’s clear involvement in the greatest witch hunt in American history and the genesis of the decade-long hoax saga that tore our nation apart and undermined the will of the people,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said. “The President and his entire administration are committed to unearthing wrongdoing and holding any individual accountable for this gross abuse of power and blatant conspiracy against President Trump and his supporters.” The Justice Department and other agencies released files Monday that have long been the subject of conspiracies. But they weren’t Epstein documents; they were documents on Hillary Clinton and more than 230,000 pages related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been a particular target of the MAGA base’s ire.“The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination,” Gabbard, whose agency was also involved in the release, said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation’s history.”The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader and MSJattvibe host, criticized the release of the King documents, saying the Trump administration was simply trying to change the subject.“We need to be crystal clear on the fact that Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice, it’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base,” he said in a statement Monday.Two of King’s children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, said in a joint statement that while they “support transparency and historical accountability,” they “object to any attacks on our father’s legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.”Bernice King then posted on X, “Now, do the Epstein files.”Early this month, the Justice Department released a memo saying that a review had turned up no “client list” of powerful men who allegedly participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking schemes.That conclusion came despite the fact that in February, Bondi told Fox News that an Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now” waiting to be reviewed and released. Jattvibe News recently reported that Trump had become frustrated with Bondi’s handling of the Epstein case and that he wanted her to take responsibility for cleaning up the mess. The Justice Department also announced Monday it had sent a redacted report to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about the FBI’s handling of files related to “former-FBI Director James Comey’s failed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of highly classified information” during Clinton’s time as secretary of state.”I commend Chairman Grassley for his unwavering, years-long commitment to exposing the truth and holding those who seek to conceal it accountable,” Bondi said. “This Department of Justice is fully committed to transparency and will continue to support good-faith efforts in Congress to ensure accountability across the federal government.”In a post on X, Grassley wrote, “Pres Trump/Pam Bondi + Kash Patel and others finally got it done” and thanked them for their dedication to transparency. The appendix to the 2018 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general involves the FBI’s handling of thumb drive devices discovered in the course of the Clinton email investigation.“It’s all a distraction, and they’ll release anything if it buys them another day or two to not talk about Epstein or to get the angry mob to talk about Epstein,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told Jattvibe News on Monday.Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., quipped: “Are the Epstein files next, if they’re in a releasing mood?”Late last week, Bondi, along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, also visited Alcatraz Island — which is now a tourist destination in the San Francisco Bay — to move forward with the administration’s plan to reopen the site as a federal prison. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., criticized it as an effort to “distract” from the Epstein controversy and other news unfavorable to the administration. “Between the Epstein files, between economic indicators — prices going up — so in classic Trump fashion, let’s distract. Let’s talk about something else. Alcatraz is not a serious proposal,” Padilla said on CNN last week. “The cost of bringing that up to minimum standards to serve as a detention facility — we’ve been hearing from Republicans all year long, they want to reduce the federal budget. They’re looking for cost-savings. This is just another effort to distract from the horrible news brought to you by the Trump administration.”Trump also has received some across-the-aisle help in diverting attention from the Epstein saga when Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden and long a target of the MAGA movement’s scrutiny, made fresh headlines.In an interview on YouTube’s “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan” that was released Monday, the younger Biden suggested that the sleeping pill Ambien was to blame for his father’s poor debate performance against Trump last year. That debate led to Biden’s decision to end his re-election campaign one year ago Monday.”No one is happier than Donald Trump,” Sarah Longwell, the anti-Trump commentator and founder of The Bulwark, wrote on X, “that Hunter Biden has decided we should hear from him at this moment.”
Amid Epstein fallout, the Trump administration turns to other MAGA grievances
