In the week after the Justice Department walked back its promise to release the full collection of files about the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, it seemed there was nothing President Trump could do to quell the fury of some of his supporters.
He tried to coax them as he defended his attorney general against their wrath, asking “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’” He said he did not understand their interest in the case, downplaying it as “boring.” He even castigated them as “weaklings” and disavowed them as “PAST supporters.” Still, the backlash kept building.
But when
The Wall Street Journal published a story
detailing a decades-old letter with a lewd drawing that Mr. Trump allegedly sent Mr. Epstein for his birthday, Mr. Trump got a respite from the revolt, as some of his core supporters rushed to his defense.
Mr. Trump turned one of the most fractious moments for his base into one of the most unifying by tapping into other MAGA grievances: the deep mistrust of mainstream media, the disdain for Rupert Murdoch and the belief that the president had been unfairly persecuted by his political foes.
Almost immediately, many of those who had been critical of the administration’s handling of the Epstein case cheered the president on as
he vehemently denied the claims
, sued The Journal and ordered his attorney general to seek the release of more information.
Mr. Trump’s allies in the hard-right “Make America Great Again” movement — known as MAGA — said that the discontent that had divided the base had dissipated, but had not been eliminated, at least for now.
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