Some of President Donald Trump’s aides and closest allies breathed a sigh of relief Friday as the MAGA base, once sharply divided over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, rallied to the president’s defense and trained their ire on a common enemy: the media.
The Wall Street Journal’s report alleging Trump sent a lewd birthday letter to Epstein offered the administration and the president’s supporters a chance to shift the narrative to more comfortable ground where Trump is the victim and the so-called elites are the target. And they believe it gives credence to the president’s argument earlier this week that the Epstein story has been a “witchhunt” that plays into Democrats’ hands.
“Thank God for Dems and media overreach on this,” said a person close to the administration, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It saves us every time.”
Trump has denied the existence of the letter and POLITICO has not verified it. Still, two White House officials, granted anonymity to speak about internal dynamics, agreed that the Wall Street Journal story could offer a strategic and timely advantage, allowing the president to attack his enemies and remind the base of the fight they believe they are in together.
“There’s nothing Donald Trump does better than being on offense,” said one of the officials. “It has helped rally the troops because people see this as more bullshit.”
The sudden rush to defend Trump comes after weeks of intraparty fighting during which influential conservatives such as Laura Loomer warned the “poorly” handled Epstein saga could “consume” Trump’s presidency, and the president said he no longer wanted the support of people who believed in the Epstein “hoax.”
But within hours of the Wall Street Journal publishing, even those who had accused the Trump administration of mishandling the Epstein episode were rushing to defend the president.
Loomer called the story “totally fake.” Elon Musk, who last month in a since deleted social media post said Trump was in the Epstein files, said the letter “sounds bogus.” Charlie Kirk, who pushed Trump for more Epstein transparency, said the Journal piece “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
“The ‘new’ target is the ‘original’ target — the Deep State and its media partners. President Trump and MAGA are always more effective on offense,” Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist and War Room podcast host, told POLITICO. “Unity of forces to attack, attack, attack.”
Another MAGA world ally of the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the story allowed the president’s base to “make sense of things” and provided “everyone a lifeline.”
“We’re not done yet, but this is a much better place than we were yesterday,” the person added. “And it feels right to be bashing the media again — it has extra oomph because [Wall Street Journal owner] Rupert Murdoch is involved.”
A spokesperson for Newscorp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report and MAGA world’s response marked the latest chapter in the Epstein firestorm, which erupted into a political mess for the White House this month after the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation released a long-awaited memo concluding there was no evidence that Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, was murdered in his jail cell or that a “client list” ever existed — unleashing accusations from far-right influencers that Trump administration officials, chiefly Attorney General Pam Bondi, were aiding a cover-up.
It left Trump in unfamiliar territory, criticizing some of his supporters as “weaklings” and unable to change the conversation in Washington as he ran up against a fractured MAGA movement that appeared unwilling to let up the pressure. That changed Thursday night when the Journal story dropped and the president announced his intention to sue, allowing him to steer the conversation to a place familiar to him and his allies — the media’s treatment, or mistreatment, of him.
It has, so far, created a rally-around-the-flag effect for the president, and allies hope that the loudest critics learned a “lesson.”
“You’re playing with fire when you do the bidding of the left and pick up their strategy. I know they were doing it because they felt like it would pressure more disclosure,” said Matt Schlapp, Trump confidant and chair of the American Conservative Union. “But President Trump has exercised more political power than any politician I’ve ever seen at any time in a democracy, and his supporters need to be careful and understand that the left is looking for every opportunity to split apart this coalition.”
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said “Democrats and Fake News media desperately tried to coordinate a despicable hoax to smear” the president, adding that Trump is the “proud leader of the MAGA movement” and has “record-high support among Republicans.”
But it’s unclear how long the reprieve will last. In the wake of the Journal report, Trump also called on Bondi to unseal “pertinent” grand jury material from the Epstein case. But that may not be enough to quell the calls from Trump supporters who want the entirety of the Epstein files released.
Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and former Trump administration appointee, said the Journal piece has made the Epstein story a “purely partisan issue” — but it remains to be seen how long the MAGA unity lasts. Additional action in the courts and among bipartisan lawmakers calling for the release of all of the files could drag out the MAGA backlash, he said.
But, for now, Loomer, Kirk and Bannon are again singing from the same hymnal.
“It’s such a joke that, you know, he’s like some sort of doodler, and now he’s Robert Frost, or something, as a poet,” Kirk said on his show Friday. “Nothing unites MAGA quite like fake news.”
Danny Nguyen contributed to this report.