The Lie That Broke MAGA

Is MAGA broken?

The outrage aimed at Trump by his base over his broken promise to release the entire Epstein file caught me off guard.

His staff released 1% of the document this week, but it’s old news, already public records. He thinks we’re easily fooled. It surprised me to find this was a line in the sand for his voters. They ignored the Trump spike in egg (and all goods) prices. The economy was an excuse some people used to vote for him.

The loss of medical insurance and food assistance wasn’t quite enough to anger his base. Republican lawmakers are staggering those cuts, holding off on the worst of it until after this November election hoping to hold their majority in Congress. They are gambling on the public’s short attention span and willingness to believe what they say. They still deny what is scheduled to be cut.

Trump’s people voted for a:

• Felon convicted on 34 counts,
• An adjudicated rapist,
• A predator accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of girls and women,
• A businessman who used chapter 11 bankruptcy six times to avoid paying workers after they completed the job and vendors after their goods were irretrievable (built into his properties,)
• A five-time draft-dodger who said avoiding STDs was his “personal Vietnam… I feel like a great and very brave soldier,” and called actual soldiers “losers and suckers.”
• The only president to have been impeached twice (each offense was unforgivable and should have disqualified him from office.) The first charge was for abuse of power, soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election bid, and then obstructing the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony. The second impeachment was for his part in the 1/6 attack on the Capitol Building, an attempt to overthrow the government. The Republican Senate refused to indict him after both impeachments.
• A thief who stole from his children’s cancer charity.
• A con man forced to return tuition he collected from would-be students at ‘Trump University,’ a school that did not exist.

None of that was enough for them to shun him and choose the a qualified black female candidate. (Yes, I think the MAGA crowd is sexist and racist.) Believing him over common sense is a choice.

After hearing some of Epstein’s survivors speak this week—women brave enough to come forward when others died under suspicious circumstances labeled “suicides”—I was stunned to learn that some of them (one said she is a Republican, and a few behind her nodded) voted for Trump. Think about that: girls who were trafficked and victimized supported Trump, a man accused of committing the same crimes as their abuser. Why? He promised to release the Epstein files. Kamala didn’t make that promise—he did. And now they’re shocked he hasn’t followed through. Of course he hasn’t. He’ll never drop those files, because they implicate him. He’s not just in them—he holds a starring role in that file.

But the true MAGA cult is already defending him: “It’s in the past.”

‪“The past” is a subjective qualifier—it could mean yesterday, last year, or decades ago. Forgiveness is meaningless when the offender denies his offenses. And “true MAGA” is an oxymoron. It’s not a movement; it’s a dormant virus of hatred that Trump reawakened. This disease feeds on lies, xenophobia, and misogyny.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have joined Democrats and two other Republicans to demand the entire Epstein file. They haven’t implicated Trump, but they’ve defied his orders in this, which amounts to, at least, a hairline fracture for MAGA. Two more GOP signatures are required to force the release of the document.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/04/jeffrey-epstein-files

There is a solution, I will repeat, to this fine mess. The only way we can stop our fall into authoritarianism is to join together. ‘We the People’ against the rich and powerful who are robbing us while we sit on our palms or work ourselves to death. [I virtually slap the side of everyone’s head.] Wake TF up. It’s all hands on deck. Only a united front can preserve the idea of a democratic republic.

~~•~~

I always like to end on a happy note. All is not lost. Good karma is earned and well rewarded. 👇🏼