MAGA Republicans Lash Out as Trump Delays Release of Epstein Files

The Trump administration’s plan to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appears to have been nothing more than a poorly disguised public relations scheme that has the MAGA fringe infuriated.

On Thursday, a cadre of MAGA influencers—DC Draino’s Rogan O’Handley, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik, Liz Wheeler, and Mike Cernovich—marched out of the White House smiling and waving glossy white binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.”

But Attorney General Pam Bondi had promised to release to the public both Epstein’s flight logs and the names of people tied to the disgraced financier on Thursday. That still hasn’t happened—infuriating MAGA Republicans in Congress.

“I nor the task force were given or reviewed the Epstein documents being released today.… A NY Post story just revealed that the documents will simply be Epstein’s phonebook,” MAGA Representative Anna Paulina Luna noted on X. “THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!”

“1) If the Epstein files are out, where do we find them? (2) What’s the difference between ‘phase 1’ and ‘phase 2’?” asked Senator Mike Lee. “Will the Epstein files tell us whether he killed himself?” he asked later.

“THERE ARE NO EPSTEIN FILES!!!” MAGA talking head Laura Loomer raged on X. “THE BINDERS ARE PROPS. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE RIGHT WING PAID INFLUENCERS LIED TO ALL OF YOU TODAY! THEY ENGAGED IN DECEPTION TO RUN COVER FOR PEDOPHILES!!! THEY POSTED SELFIES WITH PROP BINDERS! LIARS AND DECEIVERS.”

Epstein raped an untold number of young girls for years on his private island and killed himself in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of minors. The “Epstein files” are something of a white whale for the QAnon wing of MAGA, as they believe that their release would reveal the villainous liberal cabal that secretly coordinates international child sex trafficking. Many in the conspiracy community believe that Epstein’s death—and the botched release of this list—is part of a greater “deep state” cover-up.

“Skip to the end: The celebrities that your Facebook uncle says are on the Epstein List are not in any of the documents, and the story becomes ‘the deep state purged the documents,’” wrote Semafor’s David Wiegel.

By Thursday afternoon, Bondi claimed the FBI refused to hand over “thousands of pages” on the Epstein files and the real drop will happen on Friday, February 28.

The Trump administration is having trouble bringing back fired avian flu experts to take on the spread of the disease, which has caused egg prices to skyrocket.

Earlier this month, the administration fired 25 percent of the employees in an office testing for avian flu, as well as scientists and inspectors, as part of its mass purge of federal workers. The layoffs partially shut down a research facility at the Department of Agriculture, interrupting anti-bird flu efforts.

Administration officials are attempting to tout a $1 billion plan to combat the disease, as well as plans to import eggs from overseas. But that plan doesn’t include bringing back fired avian flu workers, whom the USDA is struggling to rehire. The agency is running into logistical issues as well as skeptical ex-employees, some of whom aren’t convinced they should return as Trump and Elon Musk continue to fire federal workers indiscriminately.

“I don’t know if people are going to want to come back,” one anonymous USDA employee told Politico. “Now there’s this perception that federal jobs are not secure. I think they permanently damaged these services.”

USDA supervisors have also been told to justify every bird flu employee being rehired, and some employees who have come back still don’t have laptop computers. It’s not clear if all of the fired avian flu employees have been asked to come back, and some of the reinstated workers were even sent emails urging them to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation plan, according to two sources.

“Rather than measure twice and cut once, it’s more like everyone is on the chopping block and then, ‘Oh shit we cut the wrong people,’” a USDA employee told Politico.

This could be the first test of how the Trump administration handles a crisis with Musk wielding so much power within the government. Will Trump and Musk prioritize the need to combat the disease, prevent a potential pandemic, and safeguard the country? Or will they stubbornly continue to claim achievements while they gut crucial parts of the government?

Elon Musk suddenly wants to increase the size of the federal workforce.

“There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers,” Musk wrote in a post on X Thursday. “If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so.”

Musk’s desperate call to bring retired federal employees back into the fray after single-handedly undermining the security of every single government job is inane on its face. It gets even more so when considering the actual requirements for the job.

Individuals interested in becoming an air traffic controller must be younger than 31 years of age to apply for the position, according to the Federal Aviation Administration website. Air traffic controllers are permitted to serve in the position until they are 56 years old.

So, it’s immediately unclear how Musk’s plan to lure retirees back would even be possible.

Although the solution proposed by the unelected bureaucrat is decidedly unserious, the problem straining air traffic control towers is anything but.

The New York Times reported in 2023 that nearly every air traffic control site in the country was understaffed, leading to the staffers in the high-stress position being overworked. After a deadly plane crash at the Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., earlier this month, the Times reported that its air traffic control tower had a staff of 19 controllers—as opposed to the 30 recommended by the FAA and controllers’ union.

As of September 2024, the FAA had 14,000 air traffic controllers in its employ, having surpassed its yearly goal to bring aboard 1,800 new hires. The hiring spree was implemented to reverse a “decades-long air traffic controller staffing level decline,” according to a post from the FAA.

But earlier this month, as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs, a whopping 400 FAA jobs were eliminated. According to the Trump administration, none of them were air traffic controllers.

“On the layoffs, these were probationary employees—meaning they had only been at the FAA for less than two years, represented less than 1 percent of FAA’s more than 45,000 employees,” said Department of Transportation spokesperson Halee Dobbins.

Last month, Trump issued an executive order to “immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring” at the FAA, claiming that it “prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency.”

Elon Musk may be throwing his weight around the federal government, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of Donald Trump’s Cabinet are happy about it.

Trump’s aides are reportedly struggling to contain internal administration disputes after Musk threatened mass layoffs over the weekend for federal employees who refused to submit a progress report to the Department of Government Efficiency, Reuters reported Thursday.

Responding to the president’s request that he become “more aggressive” in sizing down the federal government, Musk wrote in a social media post Saturday that all federal employees must self-report five things that they achieved in the previous week before midnight on Monday, or else they would face immediate termination.

Federal workers reportedly received an email from the Office of Personnel Management shortly afterward that echoed Musk’s post. But by Monday, many federal agencies fronted by Trump’s own appointees had simply told their staffers not to respond. Those included the Department of Defense, the FBI, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the agency that issued the directive: the Office of Personnel Management.

The notice to ignore Musk reportedly came as a shocking reversal in the White House, which had been under the impression before the weekend that internal relations between Musk and the rest of Trump’s senior staffers were improving after Musk had agreed to loop White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in on his plans, Reuters reported earlier this month.

But Trump and Wiles did not sign off on the email, according to three sources that spoke on the condition of anonymity with the newswire, despite Musk’s assurance during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting that the president had given him the OK.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Reuters’s sources were “wrong,” that Trump had signed off on the idea, that DOGE and OPM had given the White House advance notice of the email’s release, and that the “White House was not caught off guard.”

Massive cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs that would have had devastating effects for veterans were paused late Wednesday.  

Lawmakers and veterans’ organizations protested over concerns that the cuts would have hurt critical veterans’ health services. On Tuesday, VA Secretary Doug Collins had bragged the department was merely slashing consulting deals to the tune of $2 billion. 

“No more paying consultants to do things like make Power Point slides and write meeting minutes!” Collins said in an X post Tuesday. 

In reality, the 875 contracts on the chopping block dealt with everything from assessing veterans’ exposure to toxic materials to cancer treatment. On Wednesday, a VA spokesperson sought to backtrack, saying in a statement that its review of department contracts “is ongoing and not final.”

“We will not be eliminating any benefits or services to Veterans or VA beneficiaries, and there will be no negative impact to VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries. We are always going to take care of Veterans at VA. Period,” VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said in the statement.

One of the targeted contracts had to do with reviewing veterans’ disability ratings, a critical step needed for a veteran to qualify for medical coverage and draw medical compensation if they were injured due to their military service. If a veteran doesn’t receive an accurate rating, they could end up getting worse financial support and treatment options.

According to an internal VA email, one contracting official in the agency said that the Department of Government Efficiency said it was targeting “consulting” contracts, but in reality, the cuts included chemotherapy and imaging services. Other contracts that would have been axed included radiation detection equipment, cancer care support, veterans’ cemetery management, and the ability to assess toxic exposure.  

“With funding suddenly stripped from contractors processing claims, conducting medical screenings and expanding outreach, there are growing concerns veterans will face delays, denials and disruptions in accessing critical services,” Rosie Torres, executive director of Burn Pits 360, told the AP. The organization advocates for veterans who suffer from respiratory illnesses and cancers due to toxic exposure from trash-burning fires near military bases overseas.

There’s no guarantee that the planned cuts aren’t suddenly resurrected. President Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to slash what they call fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal government has largely been haphazard, resulting in multiple cases where they had to undo the firing of critical staff or the cancellation of lifesaving programs, such as some at the VA. In some cases, cuts haven’t been reversed despite promises otherwise, and whether money is even being saved is debatable at best. The question is how many lives have been ruined by Musk and Trump just a month into this presidency.