The president appeared to be in a bad mood on Wednesday morning. “The Radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again!” he declared on Truth Social. “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker.” As for MAGA types demanding further Epstein disclosures, Trump said he was happy to cut them loose. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats [sic] work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”

One can understand the president’s frustration. In just the last few weeks, Trump passed his signature piece of domestic legislation, devastated Iran’s nuclear program before swiftly negotiating a ceasefire, and won several major victories at the Supreme Court. NATO’s chief is calling him “daddy” and praising him to The New York Times. Border crossings are near historic lows. Even Trump’s big gamble on tariffs appears to be working, as U.S. revenue from import duties soars and foreign leaders, not Trump, find themselves having to “chicken out.” Despite predictions in spring of a looming economic apocalypse, inflation remains low, and both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ stock indexes have recently hit all-time highs. 

Yet all Trump’s online supporters seem to want to talk about is Jeffrey Epstein. Ever since the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation declared in a joint statement last week that there was nothing more to see in the Jeffrey Epstein case—that the disgraced financier did in fact kill himself in 2019, that there was no “client list,” and that there is no credible evidence that Epstein ran a blackmail operation—the president has been experiencing the first sustained crisis of his presidency. 

How did we get here?