Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries didn’t hold back in his criticism of Donald Trump during a press conference on Thursday. He slammed the former president over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, saying Trump and his MAGA allies had spent years pushing conspiracy theories about Epstein, only to now act surprised or defensive when the topic resurfaced.
Jeffries pushed back hard against Trump’s recent attempts to blame Democrats for the renewed focus on Epstein’s crimes. According to Jeffries, it wasn’t Democrats who stirred up public interest—it was Trump himself, along with his MAGA supporters, who kept bringing it up in the first place. Jeffries even gave Trump a new nickname: “Conspiracy theory provocateur-in-chief,” saying Trump and his allies are now suffering the consequences of the very narratives they helped spread.
Jeffries also showed support for a proposal that would require the Justice Department to make public all documents related to Epstein. He said Americans deserve to know the full truth about what happened and that full transparency is the only way to bring clarity to a situation that has long been surrounded by scandal and suspicion.
His comments came just after Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, accused Democrats of using the Epstein case for political gain. She claimed Democrats had done nothing to promote transparency when they were in power and called their current outrage hypocritical.
Meanwhile, Trump posted a furious message on Truth Social, calling the entire controversy the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.” He even lashed out at his own supporters, saying they were falling for lies and had learned nothing after years of being “conned by the Lunatic Left.”
The tension among Trump’s base began after the Justice Department released a memo saying there was no Epstein “client list” and that he had died by suicide. This angered many of Trump’s followers, who had hoped for more revelations and were frustrated with how Trump seemed to walk back his past promises to release Epstein-related documents.
Last year, Trump hinted he would share information about Epstein if he won a second term. But when some government records were released earlier this year, they didn’t reveal anything new. Then, just recently, the Justice Department said it wouldn’t release any more files—except for a video meant to prove Epstein killed himself. That decision triggered backlash, especially among people who had long believed Trump would expose more about the case.
Now, many of those same Trump supporters are questioning why he has changed his tune.
