Conspiracies launched Trump’s political career, but now that his MAGA followers are demanding accountability in the Epstein saga, Ali Velshi sees a desperate authoritarian struggling to maintain power over his outraged base.
The news that Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to a lesser-security prison and could be granted a pardon has further fueled the backlash against Trump and his justice department. Even diehard right-wing celebrities like Joe Rogan are crying betrayal over the refusal to release the Epstein files.
Since the launch of his political career, Trump has trafficked in conspiracy theories on everything from Obama fabricating evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election to a global deep-state satanic child sex-abuse ring. Even as his base continues to demand exposure of the Epstein files, the administration is putting out a greatest-hits of conspiracies in press releases and conferences as a desperate attempt to distract his own mob from screaming about a cover-up.
He is calling his own followers “stupid,” “foolish,” and “weaklings” for believing the very conspiracies that he insisted he was fighting to get their donations and votes in the first place. Trump never saw his base as partners; he saw them as marks. But now that he’s claiming that the Epstein files are a hoax, a conspiracy in direct opposition to the one he campaigned on, the conversation has changed. It isn’t about politics anymore, it’s about power, and about who gets protected and who doesn’t. MAGA elected Trump to claim that power, but now it looks like he’s been corrupted by it.
WATCH: TRUMP’S DESPERATE STRATEGY
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