
The ‘Epstein files’ implosion bleeds into foreign policy
Tina Nguyen
created: Aug. 2, 2025, 2 p.m. | updated: Aug. 4, 2025, 1:40 p.m.
While the summer doldrums have hit Washington, the MAGA influencers can never truly go on vacation, especially if they’ve spent their careers promising to reveal the truth about Jeffrey Epstein.
(For example, white nationalist Nick Fuentes has espoused Holocaust denial and praised Hitler.)
The faction highlighting both Epstein and Israel is either nonideological (such as Theo Von, who pressed JD Vance on the Epstein files and has questioned “why we [America] support Israel”), deeply populist and/or conspiratorial, and sometimes a combination of these categories.
Maintaining a good relationship with MAGA influencers is a rather different dynamic than maintaining their alliance with Fox NewsFor the Trump team and the Republican Party as a whole, it’s becoming clearer that maintaining a good relationship with MAGA influencers is a rather different dynamic than maintaining their alliance with Fox News.
Unconditional loyalty, however, does have its benefits: Loomer’s been credited with convincing Trump to fire over a dozen officials for perceived MAGA disloyalty.
2 weeks, 2 days ago: The Verge