The Dark Truth About MAGA's Obsession with Epstein

A story.

Way back, my southern lit professor assigned us an old white supremacist novel from the public domain. He did it for one simple reason—if you want to defeat your enemy, you have to understand how they think.

He was right.

I wish I could remember the title and the author. Unfortunately, all I can remember is one scene. It’ll stay with me for the rest of my life.

Here it is:

A gang of freed slaves kidnaps a farmer’s daughter. As they’re carrying her off, the farmer aims his rifle and fires one shot.

Not at the kidnappers.

At his daughter.

The bullet goes right through her back. The gang drops her on the ground and runs off, leaving her there to die.

Her dad comes up and holds her as she bleeds out. He cries. Some of his neighbors show up with guns, and they say a prayer. They’re heartbroken at the loss, but they thank the lord she didn’t have to suffer the indignity of being defiled by a bunch of, well, you know what word they use.

Compare this scene to a chapter in Gone with The Wind, where Rhett Butler gets stranded with a girl in a carriage overnight. Nothing happens, but her family doesn’t care. They try to force Rhett, a known rake, to marry her anyway. They only care about how it looks. He refuses, and they run him out of town.

That’s how MAGA thinks.

They don’t care about their daughters in any practical sense. They believe they’re going to heaven. They only care about their virtue. They’re okay with anyone on their side doing anything to their little girls. It’s only when devil-worshipping cannibals take their children that they get up in arms. Even then, they’ll kill their own girls to protect them. That’s what they believe.

You can dismiss this scene as pure fiction, but it’s more than that. It’s a fantasy written down on paper that reflects a belief system. When you grow up MAGA, like I did, you come to understand all that. I’ve seen this belief system up close. My own in-laws have tried to tell me it’s more important for little girls to be in church than protecting their health and safety.

You don’t forget it.

It’s more relevant than ever. It matters because the opinionators in our echo chamber are all bubbling with righteous excitement over the growing rift between Trump and his base over the Epstein files. But they don’t know how their enemy thinks, so they don’t understand what’s really going on.

Let’s review the popular takes:

First, there’s the notion that an epic Epstein expose will trigger Trump’s downfall and split the MAGA vote. They’re saying Trump is truly screwed. MAGA is coming undone by its own conspiracies. Then you have the ones saying it’s “a good thing” that the Trump administration won’t release the files, because it would send western civilization into a tailspin. Finally, you have the almighty virtue signalers, who swear they don’t care how many Democrats are on the list, they want it released—everyone will be held accountable.

There’s one set of opinions that’s not gaining much traction, even though it offers the most lucid perspective on all this chaos. I’m going to amplify this opinion and add my own thoughts to it, because it all has to be said.

First of all, don’t give MAGA too much credit. As this journalist has said, they’re not going to choose morality or truth over Trump. They’re not angry or upset because he might be on Epstein’s client list. Deep down, they already know. These same people enable several predators in their own midst.

They cover for them all the time.

Some of us have grown up in Trumpville with MAGA families, and we know the blind eye they turn to abuse. We lived it.

They’re not stupid.

Remember the farmer who shot his own daughter in the back rather than let her be “defiled” by his version of satan worshiping cannibals. That ideology grew into MAGA, and that’s what we’re dealing with.

MAGA will never hate Trump because he had sex with girls on a secret island. Deep down, they already know what he did. They can imagine him confessing his sins and being forgiven, even if he never does.

They’re getting angry at Trump because he won’t give them the trash pile they’ve been begging for to go after the libs. They wanted the dirt on their enemies. Even if they know the dirt doesn’t really exist, they anticipated their guy would cook up a batch of fake documents and hand it to them.

It would be sufficient.

Instead, all he did was have his attorney general compile what everyone already knew and put it into a little binder. It wasn’t good enough.

They wanted more.

They’re not going to say this part out loud, but they’re trying to tell Trump in their own way that they expected him to lie better. They wanted the kind of lies that inspired the January 6 attacks.

Now, they’re going to have to wait for something else. But what? What’s bigger than a secret island where satan worshiping libs went to consume children in every way they can possibly be consumed? Nothing beats that.

They’re angry because they know they sacrificed everything to get Trump to this point. They sold their souls, and their future.

And for what?

That’s the source of the anger. It has nothing to do with children. They’ve always been willing to use the sanctity of children as a political tool. It’s nothing new for them. They’ve been doing it for generations.

Once you understand that, you have to wonder why Trump won’t deliver on his promise, even if he hands them an entirely fabricated set of documents that gives them exactly what they want. It’s not that hard to take the next logical step and understand that Trump is on that list, so deep into the Epstein files, that he’s terrified of what happens to him. He truly thinks someone will come after him, even if it’s not his MAGA base. He’s so scared he won’t even rock the waters by releasing fake files, because someone out there might fire back.

You also have to wonder how the architects of Project 2025 are looking at this situation. I’m not the only person suggesting that while they don’t want the real Epstein files released, they do want the chaos to form a rupture between Trump and his followers, so they can start moving MAGA to the new mascot. They know the one they’ve got isn’t going to live forever.

So, maybe Vance?

Whoever they anoint, they’re going to choose someone who can rally the MAGA base and keep them distracted. They’ll do whatever’s necessary to get their pick into office. They’ll rig an election, but they’d prefer to do minor conventional tampering rather than having to hack into voting machines. The less work you have to do, the easier it gets, and the less evidence you leave behind.

Should we be fighting for the release of the Epstein files?

Yes, but someone should’ve been fighting for the last six years. Instead, they faded into obscurity, only to return because they suddenly hold political capital. Like so many other crises, this one deserves better.

None of this means the Epstein files are going to kill the MAGA movement. They might blow up Trump’s popularity, but it won’t happen in a way that makes them any easier to reach. It’s not going to make them more compassionate. It’s not going to make them question their other conspiracy theories. It’s not going to make them better critical thinkers. It’s not going to inoculate them against misinformation. They’re not going to suddenly start thinking in their own interests. I know we all want that to happen, but let’s live in the real world.

While the Epstein files dominate headlines, big networks of dark money and corrupt politicians are planning their next move and advancing their agendas in broad daylight. We need to focus on that, too.

Remember the racist farmer who shot his daughter in the back and then thanked Jesus for sparing her virtue from devil-worshipping cannibals.

That’s who we’re hoping to grow a conscience.

That.