Look, it may never amount to anything more than a temporary distraction from the frustration and horror brought on by a racist, incompetent federal administration that is sliding deeper and deeper into all-out authoritarianism-but it's been amusing watching the MAGA world crash out over the White House's handling of the imfamous (and possibly mythical, but maybe not because why is everyone soooo nervous?) client list of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Source: NurPhoto / Getty President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other members of the contemptible Caucasian clown car that is the Trump administration have been scrambling to deal with the MAGA fallout of Trump trying his best to dismiss the Epstein files as a "hoax" after Bondi said, in February, that the files were sitting on her desk, which happened before the Justice Department claimed they didn't exist, which happened after Bondi claimed the FBI was pouring through "truckloads" of evidence previously withheld by the Biden administration (but before she agreed with the DOJ that they didn't exist), which happened before Trump essentially claimed they didn't exist but, if they do, it's somehow Obama's fault.

(This is clearly a White House full of stable geniuses who communicate well.) I'm not sure why Trump and his people thought that the MAGA world-which is largely comprised of people who treat unsubstantial conspiracy theories like they're Bible verses, because that's what you do when you don't actually know things-wouldn't lose it over this, but, apparently, they are. (Alex Jones has, predictably, been running wild with it.) From The Guardian: Trump's former vice-president, Mike Pence, told CBS News on Wednesday that he thinks "the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein's investigation and prosecution," while the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, a frequent close adviser to Trump, called for the appointment of a special counsel to handle the Epstein files investigation. "Obviously, this is not a complete hoax given the fact that [Epstein associate] Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison in Florida for her crimes and activities with Jeffrey Epstein, who we know is a convicted sexual predator," she said. The podcast host Theo Von, who attended Trump's inauguration and told Fox News it was "inspiring," commented "Yeah, what changed?" on a video of the vice-president, JD Vance, appearing on Von's show in 2024 and calling for the full Epstein list to be released. Even some of Trump's most loyal allies in Congress say they are not satisfied by his decision to not release additional files from the Epstein case. Senator Josh Hawley questioned the justice department's claims about the files, saying: "I think it is maybe a little difficult to believe the idea that DoJ and the FBI...don't have any idea who Epstein's clients were," and called for Ghislaine Maxwell to testify. MAGA supporters are even out here burning their MAGA hats on video to show their displeasure with Trump and pals. Any other time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would wear Trump's hind parts as a hat without even wrapping them in tinfoil first, but when the DOJ announced earlier this month that no further disclosures would be "appropriate or warranted" when it came to Epstein, Greene called the decision "a full reversal on what was all said beforehand," and declared that "people are just not willing to accept it." "I don't accept it, and I don't think anyone else should accept it," she said during a recent interview, according to the New York Times. "I just think that it's a punch in the gut when regular people go to jail all the time, when they mess up and do something wrong, and then it always seems the rich, powerful elites escape." So, now Trump and his minions are in damage control mode. Trump recently praised Bondi for her (non)handling of the Epstein files (non)release, and said she should release "whatever she thinks is credible" of the alleged Epstein list. He also defaulted to deflection and finger-pointing at anyone but himself. "And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden [administration]," Trump said, despite the fact that Epstein was was arrested and unalived in his cell in 2019, during Trump's first term, three years after former President Barack Obama left office. "And we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through." Meanwhile, disgraced conservative commentator (who, miraculously, still has a job somewhere) Bill O'Reilly also publicly embarrassed himself by trying to blame former President Joe Biden for something he had nothing to do with. On Monday, during a back-and-forth with NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert, O'Reilly got his own blood pressure up over Democrats pushing for the release of the Epstein files and criticizing Trump for