With President Donald Trump’s recent change of stance on the release of Epstein files held by the US Department of Justice – he is now in favor after having been against and then in favor – the MAGA base could finally access the documents they crave.
On the afternoon of November 18, 2025, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of requesting the release of the files, with only one Republican voting against. That same day, the Senate unanimously approved the measure and sent it to the president for his signature.
Naomi Schalit, political editor of The Conversation, spoke with academic Alex Hinton, who has studied the MAGA movement for years, about the continued interest of “Make America Great Again” Republicans in the case of accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Hinton explains how MAGA’s interest in the case fits with what he knows about this group of ardent Trump supporters.
You are a MAGA expert. How do you come to know so much about MAGA?
I am a cultural anthropologist and our work is based on field work. We go where the people we study live, act and speak. We observe, we live with them and we see what happens. We listen and then analyze recurring themes. We try to understand the systems of meaning that underlie the group we study. And, of course, we also conduct interviews.
It seems that MAGA followers, Trump’s main supporters, are very concerned about various aspects of the Epstein case, including the publication of documents in the possession of the US government. Are you really worried about this?
The answer is yes, but there is also an implicit “no.” We need to step back and think about what MAGA is in the first place.
I consider it what in anthropology we call a nativist movement, a demand of the local population. And from there comes the “America First” speech. It is also xenophobic, meaning that there is a fear of outsiders, of invaders. It is populist, so it is something that seeks to represent the people.
Tucker Carlson interviewed Marjorie Taylor Greene and said, “I’m going to go over the five pillars of MAGA.” This was “America First,” which is absolutely critical. The second was border security. Borders must be protected. The third was antipathy toward globalization, or the recognition that globalization has failed. Another was freedom of speech, and another he mentioned was an end to foreign wars. And I would add to this an emphasis on “we the people” versus the elites.
Each of these pillars is intertwined with a key dynamic of MAGA: conspiracy theories. And these conspiracy theories are often anti-elite, returning to the motto “we the people.”
If we analyze the Epstein case, we see that many conspiracy theories converge: the “Stop the Steal” theory, the big lie, legal warfare, the deep state, the replacement theory. Epstein fits all of these theories: the existence of an elite clique that orchestrates actions that ultimately harm the interests of the people, with an anti-Semitic undertone. And particularly if you think back to 2016’s Pizzagate, this conspiracy theory that claimed there were Democratic elitists, supposedly demonic forces engaged in sex trafficking, and it turns out that Epstein was doing just that.
There are a host of these theories, and Epstein is more involved than ever.
He’s in it to the bottom. He has been there from the beginning, because he belongs to the elite and they believe he is involved in sex trafficking. Furthermore, there is suspicion about the deep state, about the government, which implies cover-ups. What did MAGA promise? Trump said: “We’re going to give them the information, right?” Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, they all said, “We’re going to tell you this.” And, at first glance, it smells like a cover-up.
But ultimately, many in the MAGA movement realized they have to support Trump. It is an exaggeration to say that there is no MAGA without Trump. There is certainly no Trumpism without Trump, but a MAGA without Trump would be like the Tea Party. It would just fade away without it.
MAGA members support Trump more than more traditional Republicans on this issue. So I don’t think there’s going to be a breakup, but it certainly creates tension. And you can see right now that Trump is under pressure.
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The breakup we’re seeing is Trump’s with one of his biggest MAGA supporters, Marjorie Taylor Greene, not the other way around.
With Greene, sometimes the relationship with Trump is like a yo-yo. There are ups and downs, tension, and then they recover. Elon Musk was a bit like that. There was a breakup, and now she’s backing out, like Musk did. I don’t think what’s happening indicates a major fracture in MAGA.
It appears that Trump backed off on releasing the documents so MAGA wouldn’t have to break with him.
It’s totally true. It’s incredible how he manipulates any news and uses it to his advantage. He’s like a chess player, unless he says something without thinking. He’s always a couple plays ahead of whatever’s going on, so in a way we’re always behind, and he knows where we are. It’s amazing that he’s able to do this.
There’s another thing about MAGA. I see it as “don’t mess with the boss.” It is a kind of excessive love for Trump that must be expressed, and literally no one dares to contradict the boss in these contexts. You follow the rules to the letter, and if you deviate from them, you know what happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene: there is the threat of Trump disowning you. You will face the primaries.
Trump has probably made a brilliant strategic move: suddenly saying, “I’m all for releasing it. Actually, it’s the Democrats who are these evil elites, and now we’re going to investigate Bill Clinton and all these other Democrats.” He owns the speech, he knows how to do it, and it is intentional. Whoever says that Trump is not charismatic is wrong: Trump is extremely charismatic. He knows how to mobilize crowds. He knows what he’s doing. Never underestimate him.
Does MAGA care about the well-being of girls who have suffered sexual abuse?
There is concern, especially among devout MAGA Christians, for whom human trafficking is a serious problem.
I think if we look at Christian morality, we see that it also relates to the idea of innocence, to being afflicted by demonic forces. It is an attack against us, the people, by those elites; It is a violation of rights. Who is not horrified at the idea of human trafficking? But, I insist, especially in Christian circles, this is a major problem.
*Alex Hinton He is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University – Newark.
This text was originally published in The Conversation
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