In all this furor over the Epstein client list and what it means and why MAGA won’t let go of it, I confess that this is an angle that never would have occurred to me. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times puts together a sketch of Jeffrey Epstein and the passion for his client list being attributed to all kinds of off the wall origins, including Epstein’s purported work for Mossad and Jews being blamed as the source for his pedophile ring. It all makes *perfect sense* if you take this in the context in which it originated, not long after and in the same framework as Pizzagate and Democrats drinking adrenochrome to stay young. In short, facts didn’t launch this conspiracy theory, a need to vilify and unite behind a common enemy did.
But is MAGA an apocalyptic cult? Those do arise from time to time. Goldberg mentions an apocalyptic UFO cult and a book that was written about it back in the 1950’s, which parallels what we’re talking about. “It’s worth recalling the origin of the phrase ‘cognitive dissonance,’ which was coined in the 1950s by Leon Festinger, an author of the book When Prophecy Fails. Festinger and his co-authors studied an apocalyptic UFO cult, with an eye to what happened when the spaceship didn’t appear as predicted. Some members, disillusioned, left the group. Most, however, maintained or redoubled their commitment. The problem for Trump is that some of his followers need to choose between their commitment to him, and to the narrative that justified his rise.” Here’s a brief description of the book When Prophecy Fails.
Martin [cult leader] claimed to be receiving messages from superior beings from a planet she referred to as Clarion. A recently published book, Aboard a Flying Saucer by UFO contactee Truman Bethurum, described his alleged interactions with beings from the planet Clarion. The messages received by Martin included a prophecy that Lake City and large portions of the United States, Canada, Central America and Europe would be destroyed by a flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. Through the restrained recruitment activities of Charles Laughead (a college doctor in Michigan) and other acquaintances, Martin was supported in her mediumship by a small group of believers. Some of the believers took significant actions that indicated a high degree of commitment to the prophecy. Some left or lost their jobs, neglected or ended their studies, ended relationships and friendships with non-believers, gave away money and/or disposed of possessions to prepare for their departure on a flying saucer, which they believed would rescue them and others in advance of the flood.
As anticipated by the research team, the prophesied date passed with no sign of the predicted flood, causing a dissonance between the group’s commitment to the prophecy and the unfolding reality. Different members of the group reacted in different ways. Many of those with the highest levels of belief, commitment and social support became more committed to their beliefs, began to court publicity in a way they had not before, and developed various rationalizations for the absence of the flood. Some others, with less prior conviction and commitment, and/or less access to ongoing group support, were less able to sustain or increase their previous levels of belief and involvement, and several left the group. The findings of the research team were broadly in line with their initial hypothesis regarding how believers might react to a prophecy disconfirmation if certain conditions were or were not in place.
MAGA now stands in a place where there is about to be a prophecy disconfirmation. But from the sounds of it, a lot of them are not going to simply allow that to take place. They have demanded the Epstein files and Trump has promised it to them. And after all, there is a profound difference between empirical evidence, supposedly stored at the FBI and the DOJ over a period of years (not to mention with the lawyers that prosecuted Epstein’s case) and a spaceship coming to rescue survivors from a flood that never happened.
The entanglement of the Epstein drama with American debates about the Jewish state portends some dark developments. I won’t pretend to know whether Epstein ever worked for the Israelis, though I can’t imagine Trump covering for them at any cost to himself. I’m worried, however, about people blaming Jews for the strange and unresolvable parts of his sordid story. Scroll through X, and you’ll see they already are.
This is true. The worldwide cabal of wealthy, powerful men (which of course includes a lot of Jews) acting as pedophiles is key to the QAnon theory which Trump coopted to win the 2016 election.
Among those on the right who believe there’s an Epstein coverup, few seem to be entertaining the idea that Trump is protecting himself. That, after all, would require a re-evaluation of his integrity and their judgment. But they still take for granted that Epstein was trafficking girls to powerful men and then blackmailing them, and that he was killed so he couldn’t talk. Now they have to figure out why Trump won’t give them the information they long for. The most logical explanation, said Tucker Carlson on his podcast last week, is “that intel services are at the very center of this story, U.S. and Israeli, and they’re being protected.”
This notion has become so widespread that Israel’s government tried to address it. “There is no evidence — none — that Epstein was acting on behalf of the State of Israel,” wrote the Israeli minister Amichai Chikli in an open letter addressed to Turning Point’s head, Charlie Kirk. But Chikli couldn’t resist using the case against his more centrist political enemies, saying he wants to understand Epstein’s connection to “former Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, who both appear in previously published Epstein-related documents.”
The Epstein files are considered the right-wing Rosetta Stone. Once these are released, all will be learned, goes the theory. Trump miscalculated badly when he thought that MAGA would just forget about Epstein, because he told them it was time to. He misread the room.
Trump’s followers responded to his attempt to wave Epstein away with uncharacteristic fury and disappointment. Bongino has reportedly threatened to resign over Bondi’s handling of the case. Epstein was a major subject at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, a conservative conference that began on Friday. Speaking from the stage in Tampa, Fla., the comedian Dave Smith accused Trump of actively covering up “a giant child rapist ring.” The audience cheered and applauded.
Nobody knows what Trump is going to do about this. That may include Trump himself. Dan Bongino is still working for the FBI. Pam Bondi is still at the DOJ. This is despite the standoff last week where 100% of MAGA was supporting Bongino and 0% was supporting Bondi (according to polls on X.) Very likely this status quo will be maintained. And as to Trump fighting satantic, globalist forces?
The Epstein files were supposed to show the world, once and for all, the scale of the evil system that Trump’s voters believe he is fighting. “Epstein is a key that picks the lock on so many things,” Steve Bannon said at the Turning Point conference.
Either the Epstein files will get released, in some kind of a format, truncated, redacted, whatever, or they won’t get released and this will be the prophecy disconfirmation, or betrayal. And what will happen then? Will MAGAs still stay behind Trump? Or will they do what another apocalyptic UFO cult did in California, Heaven’s Gate, where they all lay down one night and died after drinking kool-aide laced with barbituates?
The Heaven’s Gate cult was together for 22 years, which is over twice as long as Trump has been on the political scene and his MAGA cult has arisen. I frankly doubt that Trump will still be alive in twelve years and he won’t be in power unless he literally stages a coup of the government and stays in power.
The Heaven’s Gate people simply got tired, particularly their leader. He gave up. He made the decision to bring out the drugs and the kool-aide. Jim Jones hit the exact same juncture. His game could not continue as it was. Trump so far gives no indication of being cornered like Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite were. But then again, we haven’t seen Trump hit a convergence of events like Jim Jones did after he murdered the congressman and his staff or Marshall Applewhite did when the Halle Boppe comet came through the solar system providing him the perfect rationale to end the cult’s futile existence.
In other words, we simply haven’t seen the right set up occur yet. And what that set up might be, I don’t have a clue. These things do tend to take on a momentum of their own. But one thing I have learned in writing about Trump these many years is that no matter what happens, it always gets worse. That is the constant upon which you may depend.
