Is the Epstein Controversy an Apocalyptic Moment for the MAGA Movement?

If you’ve ever attended a Christian music concert, you’ll likely remember the mid-concert missions pitch. Growing up in the evangelical tradition, I heard countless versions of this pitch from local nonprofit leaders admonishing us to give to their organizations. But there is one pitch I’ll never forget.

In high school, I went to see Remedy Drive at a small music venue in Northeast Wisconsin. At the time, they were a larger-than-life band with songs like “Daylight” and “All Along” topping the Christian music charts. The concert lived up to the expectation as their long-haired frontman, David Zach, danced around the stage, jumping off speakers and spraying water into the crowd.

When the time came for the mission pitch, we settled in for what we thought would be a short “pass the plate” invitation, giving the band and crowd enough time to catch our breath. Instead, Zach grabbed the microphone and began talking to the crowd for nearly an hour about his travels to Southeast Asia with The Exodus Road, an organization that worked with law enforcement in Asia and Latin America to find and free trafficked people, train and educate officers and citizens, and empower survivors “with restorative care on their journey into freedom.”

This experience will be familiar to many who grew up in and around the evangelical tradition. Whether it was documentaries, movies, national nonprofits, or Christian celebrity advocates, white evangelical Christians have long placed sex trafficking among their highest moral concerns. As social ethicist Nicole S. Symmonds rightly summarizes, “Anti-trafficking work is coated with and coded by evangelical whiteness, which uses the norms of sexual, social, and racial purity in their interactions with and recovery of trafficking victims and survivors.”

Considering this reality, it should come as no surprise that President Donald Trump would hone in on a human trafficking conspiracy that involved leaders at the highest level of our government to solidify his already firm foothold among evangelical Christians.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump tapped into the missionary fervor of his evangelical MAGA base by saying that he would release the Epstein files. These files are legal documents pertaining to the criminal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who was a multi-millionaire and convicted pedophile. In 2019, while imprisoned and awaiting a federal trial on sex trafficking charges, Epstein hung himself. His suicide led to a string of conspiracy theories, popularized not only by MAGA supporters and QAnon conspiracists but also by members of the Republican Party, who insisted that Epstein did not kill himself but was instead murdered.

According to these groups, the legal documents and evidence collected by the Justice Department held the potential to expose the criminal underbelly of Democrats and progressive elites.

Although it is a conspiracy theory, the belief that the “United States is secretly controlled by a cabal of elites who are pedophiles, sex traffickers and satanists” took deep roots in fertile, conspiracy-filled soil and soon grew into an ugly, defining weed of the MAGA movement. Trump added fuel to this fire by amplifying conspiracy theories that suggested this “cabal of elites” was in control of the country, and the only person who could expose this “deep state” was him.

But despite Trump’s previous comments indicating a willingness to release the Epstein files and thereby expose this “deep state,” in early July, the Trump administration’s rhetoric about the Epstein files took a decisive turn. Leaders like United States Attorney General Pam Bondi, who once said that she had, sitting on her desk, a literal list of clients who relied on Epstein to facilitate sex with minors, quickly denied the existence of such a document.

In a press conference, Trump pushed back against reporters who asked about evidence related to Epstein. On the social media platform Truth Social, Trump called the investigation a “waste [of] Time and Energy” about “somebody that nobody cares about” and then claimed that the Epstein case was a hoax invented by the “Radical Left Democrats.” By late July, Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson shut down the House early for a month-long recess to prevent a vote on releasing additional documents. On Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) filed a discharge petition that would compel the Justice Department to release the files related to Epstein, Politico reported. “[T]his has not gone away like the speaker had hoped,” Massie said.

All of this must also be considered in the context of reports linking Trump to Epstein. The Wall Street Journal has not only reported on a suggestive birthday card Trump sent to Epstein that contained a crude poem and suggestive drawing, but it has also reported that Trump was told in May that his name was contained in the Epstein files.

READ MORE: Why Do So Many Christians Fall For Conspiracy Theories?

This 180-degree turn in the Trump administration’s stance on the Epstein files has not gone unnoticed by his base. It turns out that dealing in conspiracy theories only results in more conspiracy theories and, ironically, calls for greater transparency among those who support or enable such conspiratorial thinking. Not only is the general public unhappy with how the Epstein case has been handled, but Trump’s base and some of his most influential media allies, like conservative commentators Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, and podcaster Joe Rogan, have begun pushing back.

Although critiques of Trump have come from far and wide, this critical call is coming from inside the house.

I have been incredibly skeptical of any claim that the MAGA movement is at a breaking point. We’ve consistently seen lifelong Republicans and evangelical Christians betray their stated values to support the current regime. And yet, as these events have played out over the past two months, I have begun to sincerely ask if this is an apocalyptic moment for the MAGA movement.

As Trump fumbles over his words and suggests those still clamoring for the release of the files are “weaklings” or have been “duped” by the Democrats, there appears to be a portion of his supporters who are expressing disillusionment. Is this the moment where the scales fall from Republicans’ eyes and they see Trump for who he has always been? Is this the part in the cult documentary where someone looks down at their cup of Kool-Aid and asks themselves, “Wait, why am I drinking this?”

As Trump fumbles over his words and suggests those still clamoring for the release of the files are “weaklings” or have been “duped” by the Democrats, there appears to be a portion of his supporters who are expressing disillusionment. Is this the moment where the scales fall from Republicans’ eyes and they see Trump for who he has always been?

In a recent conversation with my friend Rev. Chris Ray Alexander about this entire saga, Chris likened this moment to what philosopher Jacques Lacan called the point de capiton: the quilting point.

In short, the point de capiton likens the communal process of meaning-making and self-understanding to a stitch on a quilt that holds the tension of the interwoven threads together. Its location can be subjective, even arbitrary. Nevertheless, when that stitch is cut, the whole piece frays and falls apart.

What if, Chris questioned, everything with these Epstein files is MAGA’s point de capiton? Yes, there are many places that Trump has betrayed the stated values of both evangelicals and Republicans, but what if those weren’t the quilting point? What if, for whatever reason, this focus on sex trafficking is that point of tension where the whole movement frays? What if this betrayal of an established, in-group identity is the broken seam that begins to splinter Trump’s loyalists?

Lacan’s theory also proposes that this quilting point is not formed in a linear or orderly system. It is inherently subjective and illogical, a process formed in response to the chaos (real or perceived) around us. As theologian Paul Axton explains, “From out of the chaos arises unity, not because there is any actual coherence but because the world threatens and this very threat or violence must be tamed.” This is the essence of a conspiracy theory—a threat is identified, and solidarity is formed in defending oneself against it. Axton continues: “The entry into a coherent or unified understanding, the ability to name and control the chaos, depends upon the continual threat of the chaos.” This is the MAGA strategy in a nutshell.

But when you lose the ability to control that chaos—which is exactly what is happening to Trump in this case—people begin questioning the previously “coherent” story that was being told and the identity that they adopted in light of that story.

Around the time of the #ChurchToo movement, which was a movement focused on exposing abusive pastors throughout the United States, I experienced my own reckoning with the evangelical tradition and its theory for addressing chaos.

I was told that my insular evangelical community had all of the right answers and was the truest and most faithful expression of the Christianity revealed in the scriptures. I read the books they gave me and embraced Christian apologetics and purity culture. I even invited others to “leave their sin behind” and join me. I sat in awe as I listened to Remedy Drive talk about how God was saving souls in Southeast Asia and eagerly put my $10 in the offering bucket. In reality, though, I was being used to serve a larger ecosystem of evangelical profit and abusive power. As #ChurchToo revealed, the pastors and leaders I idolized and evangelized not only failed to practice what they preached —abstinence, peacemaking, respect, Christlikeness—they were actively abusing others in the most heinous and evil ways.

My guess is that some Trump followers also feel duped and have started to question their own identity. Maybe you’ve given your proverbial $10 in the offering bucket and donned a red cap, believing that you were bringing light to a dark world. Maybe you looked away as a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Caroll in a court case that deemed him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Maybe you’ve closed your eyes as your undocumented neighbors have been disappeared by masked, armed federal agents. Maybe you’ve quickly scrolled past images of starving children in Gaza as billions of U.S. dollars are sent to support Israel’s military efforts.

I continue to doubt that the MAGA movement will ever be reduced to a powerless minority. We are too deep in the trenches of political warfare to turn back (I would love nothing more than to be wrong about this).

But maybe, just maybe, Trump’s handling of the Epstein files is the quilting point for you, where you recognize Trump for what he is: a swindler, a conman, a manipulator, an abuser, and a terrible leader. I certainly hope so.