{"id":10832,"date":"2025-11-19T21:26:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-insights-rifts-widen-in-maga-movement-as-u-s-congress-votes-to-release-epstein-files\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T21:26:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:26:42","slug":"world-insights-rifts-widen-in-maga-movement-as-u-s-congress-votes-to-release-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-insights-rifts-widen-in-maga-movement-as-u-s-congress-votes-to-release-epstein-files\/","title":{"rendered":"World Insights: Rifts widen in MAGA movement as U.S. Congress votes to release Epstein files"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"image\"><figcaption><span>The photo taken from atop the Washington Monument on Nov. 17, 2025 shows U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua\/Hu Yousong)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span><strong>&ldquo;The Epstein files are a tough issue for MAGA because Trump&rsquo;s supporters are convinced government officials are covering up high-level shenanigans,&rdquo; Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) &mdash; The Republican-controlled U.S. Congress voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to release the files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, amid cracks in the &ldquo;Make America Great Again&rdquo; (MAGA) movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Donald Trump has been the de facto leader of the GOP for roughly a decade. However, the coalition is starting to fray, at a time when the president has been criticized for seeming to flip-flop on the release of the Epstein files.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump &mdash; once a friend of Epstein &mdash; vowed to release the files during his campaign, later pushed to keep them bottled up, and in recent days did a complete U-turn and supported their release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>U.S. media suggested that Trump&rsquo;s 180-degree turnaround was prompted by the fact that a substantial number of Republican lawmakers were already planning to vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>MAGA supporters despise Epstein, as they believe he symbolizes a system whereby the rich and powerful are above the law. Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges &mdash; his death was officially ruled as suicide.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><span>&ldquo;The Epstein files are a tough issue for MAGA because Trump&rsquo;s supporters are convinced government officials are covering up high-level shenanigans,&rdquo; Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;But they don&rsquo;t want to think Trump is involved even though he was friends with Epstein,&rdquo; West said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Rifts within the MAGA movement are beginning to surface. Trump has recently withdrawn support from conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, labeling her a &ldquo;traitor&rdquo; after she asked why he opposed the release of the Epstein files.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Greene, until recently an ardent Trump supporter, was regarded as one of the leading faces of the MAGA movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Clay Ramsay, a researcher with the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua: &ldquo;When Trump campaigned in 2024, he said he would be willing to release the Epstein files if he won &hellip; Trump&rsquo;s own voters voted for him, fully expecting he would release the files.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;The Epstein issue is &hellip; about extremely wealthy men exploiting underage girls &hellip; At the level of Trump&rsquo;s rank-and-file supporters, I suspect more want the files released than do not,&rdquo; Ramsay said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><span>Christopher Galdieri, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, told Xinhua: &ldquo;This is an issue where there are a lot of true believers among the MAGA faithful &mdash; the people who were attracted to Trump back in 2015 when he was railing against a culture of elite impunity and corruption.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;So to see Trump backtrack (on the Epstein files) may have shaken some of these folks&rsquo; belief in Trump,&rdquo; Galdieri said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Aside from the Epstein files, MAGA supporters have questioned why Trump has recently taken some actions that seem to diverge from his &ldquo;America First&rdquo; agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some MAGA supporters expressed concern when Washington bombed Tehran back in June, questioning whether this action was crucial to U.S. national security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Republican Representative Thomas Massie co-authored a resolution with a Democrat, seeking to prevent Washington from &ldquo;unauthorized hostilities&rdquo; with Tehran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Speaking on CBS&rsquo; &ldquo;Face the Nation,&rdquo; Massie said that there was &ldquo;no imminent threat to the United States&rdquo; to justify the U.S. strikes on Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This comes after Trump&rsquo;s campaign promises last year of avoiding wars that are not directly in the interest of defending the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Greene &mdash; once an ardent Trump supporter &mdash; was among those who questioned Trump&rsquo;s use of force in Iran, asking how that fit with Trump&rsquo;s vows to end wars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Greene has also been critical of last month&rsquo;s 20 billion U.S. dollar currency swap with Argentina and the decision to ramp up beef imports from the South American country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In an interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson last month, Greene said Trump&rsquo;s move was &ldquo;one of the grossest things&rdquo; she&rsquo;s ever witnessed and added that she &ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t understand how that is America First.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s honestly a punch in the gut to all of our American cattle ranchers, and they are furious and rightfully so,&rdquo; Greene said.<\/span><span>&#9632;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>World Insights: Rifts widen in MAGA movement as U.S. Congress votes to release Epstein files<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The photo taken from atop the Washington Monument on Nov. 17, 2025 shows U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua\/Hu Yousong) &ldquo;The Epstein files are a tough issue for MAGA because Trump&rsquo;s supporters are convinced government officials are covering up high-level shenanigans,&rdquo; Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua. WASHINGTON, Nov&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-insights-rifts-widen-in-maga-movement-as-u-s-congress-votes-to-release-epstein-files\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;World Insights: Rifts widen in MAGA movement as U.S. Congress votes to release Epstein files&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}