Trump's followers on Truth Social were not having it. They accused the president of "gaslighting" and insisted his argument is "not holding water."

Conservatives, led by key figures in the MAGA movement, have pressed unsubstantiated claims that Epstein was murdered and that “deep state” actors in the government are hiding lists of his clients, videos of crimes being committed and other evidence. Trump himself suggested there was a cover-up.

But no issue has exposed the underlying fault lines in the MAGA tent quite like the so-called Epstein files. The furor has centered on a new government review of the evidence surrounding the disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein,

Donald Trump very rarely loses control of his own story. But the Jeffrey Epstein saga is beyond his powers to quell.