The Trump administration’s failure — so far — to release more material evidence concerning the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has created a rare confluence of media solidarity, as left-leaning media outlets like MSNBC are amplifying the same sort of content as far-right influencers like Tucker Carlson.
Dropping video receipts like vintage Tim Russert, these opposing media poles on the right and the left are both featuring top Trump administration figures stoking outrage and making promises about Epstein transparency — transparency which they have not delivered on, to the particular consternation of President Trump’s MAGA base.
Below is a compilation video put together by MSNBC that shows Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino in various appearances expressing outrage about the Epstein files and why they are being withheld from public scrutiny by the powers that be. The video also features Trump answering a direct question about potentially declassifying the controversial files, with his response being “I guess I would.”
(Trump offers the caveat that if the release of the files could “hurt people” because there is “a lot of phony stuff” in them, he would take that into consideration before declassification.)
I can’t stop watching this epic video that MSNBC just played of Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, and Pam Bondi about the Jeffrey Epstein files. Share it before the DOJ demands X take it down. pic.twitter.com/6mhIjqKzVu
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) July 14, 2025
Damningly, as far as MAGA adherents are concerned, Patel, who now controls the FBI, asserts in the video that the Epstein material is “under the direct control of the director of the FBI.” Bondi says more recently that she has the material on her desk “to review.” Bongino’s take on the lack of Epstein transparency — before he became party to withholding it — is even more severe as he asserts, of an administration that won’t release the files, that “if you’re lying about that, you’re lying about everything.”
Trump was helped into office by the promise of transparency on Epstein, but this week the President has defended Bondi’s decision to move away from the topic without further reveals to the public. Calling Epstein, who died in jail in 2019, a “creepy guy” who shouldn’t be the focus of anyone’s attention in 2025, Trump has tried to move on and change the narrative. Yet there are signs that the president’s customary success with controlling the narrative and dictating priorities to his most ardent followers isn’t working as well as usual this time.
While some GOP lawmakers like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who is looking for Trump’s endorsement in a run for governor, are falling in line for the President, many of those more closely associated with MAGA are having trouble squaring the administration’s turnabout.
Perhaps no nationally recognized politician has signaled MAGA’s dissatisfaction with the lack of progress on the Epstein case as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a dyed-in-the-wool Trump loyalist who nevertheless isn’t moving on as directed.
BREAKING!!!
TRUMP JUST LOST MTG:Marjorie Taylor Greene calls the Epstein cover-up crossing a red line and told the NYT that Trump is turning his back on the America First approach by helping speed weapons deliveries to Ukraine. “This is what we campaigned on.” pic.twitter.com/r8PF3jkNJt
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) July 15, 2025
Above is Greene claiming what is already well-known to anyone listening to conservative media like Glenn Beck or Carlson — that dropping the Epstein matter and expecting obeisance from the base are incompatible.
Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju how big of an Epstein “blowback” there is in MAGA world at present, Greene said calmly and frankly: “It’s pretty big, I have to be honest. It’s just a red line that it crosses for many people. Jeffrey Epstein is literally the most well-known convicted pedophile in modern day history.”
Greene, who could be referencing the MSNBC video for evidence, continued: “This is something that has been talked about by many people in the administration, myself and many others — on the right and the left — of there needing to be transparency of the rich and powerful elites who were in his circle while he was just one of the worst serial abusers of young women.”
[NOTE: It is well known that Trump himself had a long association with Epstein, though that relationship purportedly ended before Trump entered national politics. When Greene says Americans should know the names of the elites that were in Epstein’s circle “while he was” an abuser, she makes room to exclude Trump if it turns out that Trump’s association with Epstein did not persist into the period when Epstein was committing his crimes.]