Alex Jones Calls Out Trump “Cult” as MAGA’s Epstein Fury Grows

Trump’s dismissal of the Jeffrey Epstein case is giving some of his most ardent supporters—like Alex Jones—a bit of an identity crisis.

“Trump, we’ve believed in you, we’ve seen you do great work, we’ve seen the bad guys, the worst certified people on earth come after you,” Jones said in a video on Wednesday, staring directly into the camera. He then accurately detailed the Trump administration’s history of contradictory policy on the Epstein files. “And now we’ve seen you uncharacteristically flip flop on your promises back and forth. ‘There was no Epstein case, there’s nothing to see here. Ok, we’re gonna investigate it, we’re gonna put it in a special counsel, no there’s nothing there, anybody investigating it is fake news and is a traitor.’ Your most loyal supporters and good people are the ones pointing this out.”

Jones captioned the video “why is Trump destroying MAGA in real time?”

If I was a QAnon-adjacent, Epstein-obsessed MAGA conspiracy theorist, I would be feeling dejected, angry, and confused right now too. Donald Trump and his inner circle made this issue central to their campaign, making promises upon promises to reveal every secret regarding the Epstein files. Now they’re saying there’s nothing there, and that anyone who ever thought so is a complete idiot. It’s been brutally amusing to watch in real time.

“To say ‘you either agree with everything I do or you’re not in our club, I don’t want you,’ well, that sounds kind of like a thorough-bred cult to me,” he said in another video where he compared MAGA to a cult. “When somebody starts saying don’t question things or you can’t be in our club, yeah that’s a cult.”

“I have to say at this point, if you look at the scales here, whether it happened a year ago or six months ago or a month ago, stuff really started to change when Elon [Musk] left, with what he discovered,” he added. “And I think it has a lot of credibility what he said. Trump’s implicated here. I’m not saying sex abuse or kids but definitely somehow, somebody close to him … you are compromised. And If you go with the deep state and continue down this road … the coverup is even worse than whatever would have come out. So I’m loyal to the truth.”

While some MAGA loyalists have scapegoated Attorney General Pam Bondi for various reasons—like her lying about the client list being on her desk, or claims that she is a nefarious deep state operative who strong-armed FBI director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Bongino on the Epstein memo—but few have had the gall to make the connection Jones did here. Perhaps Trump wants everyone to forget about Epstein because he or his friends would be implicated. Either way, the hardcore wing of the MAGA movement is in shambles over this. And as we approach week three of the fallout, it’s unclear if they’ll ever fully recover. There may be more tears from Jones in the near future.

Elected representatives say they aren’t interested if their constituents are detained by federal immigration officials.

On Capitol Hill Wednesday, South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman, Texas Representative Troy Nehls, and Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville brushed off reports that American citizens were being targeted by ICE agents in overzealous raids.

“Congressman, do you care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in ICE raids?” Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez asked each of them.

“No, I’m not concerned about that,” confessed Norman, underscoring that he was “so appreciative” of border czar Tom Homan’s actions to force undocumented immigrants out of the country en masse.

“I’m concerned about law and order in America. If you’re an illegal, you don’t need to be here,” Norman said, apparently forgetting that ICE has no authority to arrest, detain, or deport U.S. citizens.

“But what if you’re a citizen?... It just seems to be happening a lot,” pressed Manríquez.

But Norman said he doesn’t “believe that,” highlighting concerns about alleged undocumented gang members in the country when Manríquez cited reports that U.S. veterans are getting dragged into ICE’s deportation machine.

At least one veteran has so far been detained by the aggressive agency: George Retes, a 25-year-old disabled veteran, was detained on July 10 while at work on a California farm. He was held for three days by ICE officials without access to legal representation and without any charges against him, according to Representative Pramila Jayapal’s office.

Jayapal introduced legislation Wednesday—the “Stop ICE from Kidnapping US Citizens Act”—to make ICE’s illegal actions even more blatant. The measure would prevent ICE from detaining and deporting U.S. citizens following reports that the agency had been harassing the country’s Latino population, requesting on-demand proof of citizenship.

But Norman isn’t the only lawmaker to disregard the alarming cases. Nehls attempted to undermine the traumatizing nature of detention when asked if he cared about the arrested citizens, telling Manríquez that the media shouldn’t “spin” detention for “more than it really is.”

“Are you detained for more than three days?” Nehls asked rhetorically, waving his cigar.

“In some cases, yeah,” responded Manríquez.

“Well, maybe people can’t prove that they’re American citizens, either, have the documentation,” Nehls said, apparently at a loss for words, though he did mention that he believed Homan was doing a “hell of a job.”

“It’s not a big problem. It really, really isn’t,” Nehls added.

Tuberville’s sensitive advice to Americans concerned about being illegally detained by plainclothed undercover ICE agents was simple: “First of all, don’t put yourself in a situation where that happens.”

“I’m sure with the illegals we have in this country, some mistakes happen, that always—that’s gone happen,” Tuberville said, before directing Americans to disengage from undocumented communities. “But if you are gonna be hanging around people who are not citizens of this country, some things like that are going to probably happen.”

“Don’t hang around illegals,” he warned.

Tuberville had no advice for mixed-status families.

President Trump once again raised questions surrounding his mental acuity after he seemed to forget that he was the person who appointed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, while he was in the middle of admonishing Powell for not capitulating to his economic plan.

“He’s a terrible, he’s a terrible fed chair,” Trump said of Powell on Wednesday. “I’m surprised he was appointed, I was surprised frankly that Biden put him in and extended him.” 

It was in fact Trump, not Biden, who put Powell “in.” The president nominated Powell for Fed chair in November of 2017, to replace Janet Yellen. 

The incident came just after multiple reports revealed that Trump has a secret letter firing Powell, and he has been asking Republican lawmakers whether he should send it.

This is also a major slip-up from Trump, the result of both his strong inclination to blame anything he doesn’t like on the previous administration and genuine mental decline. This is not the first time Trump’s mental fog has shown itself, even as he is just barely halfway through the first year of his second term. He went on an unrelated tangent about his summer vacation plans earlier this month when he was asked a very basic question about how long detainees would be kept in the Alligator Alcatraz detention camp, and famously confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley up at a campaign event last year. These are just one of many examples. Who knows what Trump’s mind will look like at the end of this term.  

The Department of Homeland Security used a painting to evoke themes of xenophobia, white supremacy, and a glorification of Manifest Destiny—all without seeking the approval of Morgan Weistling, the artist who painted it. 

On Monday, the DHS posted Weistling’s painting with an incorrect title, calling it “New Life in a New Land,” rather than the original “A Prayer for New Life.” 

Weistling made himself and his grievances known shortly thereafter. 

“Attention!  I DID NOT give the DHS permission to use my painting in their recent postings on their official web platforms,” he wrote on his website. “They used a painting I did 5 years ago and re-titled it and posted it without my permission. It is a violation of my copyright on the painting.  It was a surprise to me and I am trying to gather how this happen and what to do next. Thank you for those of you that let me know about it.” Weistling posted similar statements on Facebook and Instagram, adding that the news ruined his family vacation.

The DHS post is troubling for a few reasons. What made them change the title of the painting to a much more land-centered, migration-centered message? Did they just think that Weistling would have no issue with having his painting used without permission and compensation? But most troubling in all this is the timing, as the incendiary, thinly-veiled white supremacist language comes as the Trump administration is in the midst of a massive immigration crackdown in which ICE has effectively opened a concentration camp, set wild new arrest quotas, and openly admitted to racial profiling Latinos. 

“I am amazed that they thought they could randomly post an artist’s painting without permission,” Weistling said in his Instagram post. “They even re-titled it.”

The president would apparently rather disparage his base than release the case files pertaining to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking with reporters at the White House Wednesday, Trump said that he had “lost a lot of faith” in his supporters, calling the controversy surrounding Epstein a “hoax” and accusing some conservatives of being “duped” by Democrats.

“You mentioned ‘past’ supporters when you were talking about the Epstein issue. Does that mean you are effectively disowning any supporters?” asked one reporter, referring to a lengthy rant Trump posted on Truth Social earlier in the day.

“Well, I lost a lot of faith in certain people, yeah,” Trump said. “Because they got duped by the Democrats. The Democrats are good for nothing. They almost destroyed our country.”

But that wasn’t the only insult Trump threw around.

“It is a hoax started by Democrats, it’s been run by Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Wray and Comey before him. It’s a bad group,” Trump said, likening his administration’s home-brewed fiasco to the Trump-Russia dossier. “Some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try to do the Democrats’ work.”

That last comment actually also applies to several MAGA politicos in leadership positions, including Vice President JD Vance and Trump himself, who jointly campaigned on repeat promises to release the Epstein files.

Much to Trump’s chagrin, the botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague his administration. A Morning Consult poll conducted earlier this month found that Trump’s popularity had tanked by six points since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epstein’s so-called “client list.”

The fallout has been so substantial that the president directed Fox News and some commentators such as Charlie Kirk to stop discussing the topic altogether, though that hasn’t played well with some of the mouthier personalities on the far-right.

“Yelling at me to stop talking about a subject is the number one way to make sure that I keep talking about the subject,” Matt Walsh posted on X Wednesday.

And last month, Elon Musk accused Trump of being mentioned by name in the Epstein files, claiming that Trump’s alleged attachment to the disgraced financier was the real reason why the details of the case had not yet been made public.

But Republicans have unquestioningly fallen in line behind their leader: on Tuesday, the party blocked a Democrat-led effort to release the Epstein files. The final vote was 211 to 210—just one dissenting Republican would have tipped the scales.

QAnon believers—who turned out at the polls in November to re-elect Trump—have believed for years that the 79-year-old billionaire politician would rid the world of Satan-worshiping, liberal-minded pedophiles who run the government and media. But Trump’s sudden refusal to offer up what he has promised his conspiratorial followers has cast his messiah-like status with the group into doubt.

A reminder that prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trump’s “closest friends.” The socialites were named and photographed together, and Trump reportedly slept with his now-wife Melania for the first time aboard Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

But Trump also has a terrible track record with how he treats women outside of Epstein’s world: the current president was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carrol last year, was convicted as a felon for crimes relating to his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, and famously boasted on a hot mic before his ascent to America’s political vanguard that he grabs women “by the pussy.”