Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta has sharply criticized President Donald Trump following the administration’s backpedaling on releasing new information about the late Jeffrey Epstein, sparking backlash from within Trump’s own MAGA base.
Acosta’s remarks came after Monday’s announcement by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who stated that the Trump-aligned administration would not be making additional Epstein-related documents public. This reversal comes months after the White House promised transparency during a February MAGA influencer event, where binders of documents purportedly linked to Epstein were distributed.
The decision has outraged many within the MAGA movement, who had long speculated about the existence of a so-called Epstein “client list” implicating powerful political figures, particularly Democrats. Bondi’s announcement challenged two of MAGA’s most circulated claims: that such a client list ever existed, and that Epstein died under suspicious circumstances rather than by suicide in his jail cell.
On his Substack show, Acosta likened the fallout to a phrase from his grandmother: “You make your bed, you lie in it.” “Just about every goofball on the far-right with an X account for the last several years had been popping off on Jeffrey Epstein,” Acosta said.
“I don’t know if we’re at a sort of MAGA inception moment, but part of the thing that is going on on the far-right is that they were so creeped out by all that video and all those photos of Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, that they just wanted to go out there and both-sides this.”
Photographs and footage of Trump with Epstein have circulated for years, often raising questions that MAGA influencers have largely deflected by focusing on Democratic figures. Acosta argued that the real motivation behind some of the far-right conspiracy theories may have been to draw attention away from Trump’s own alleged associations.
“Perhaps it was to paper over whatever Trump was up to in all of this,” Acosta said. The Epstein case has remained a flashpoint across political lines, with the MAGA base holding on to the belief that justice would uncover a web of elite involvement.
However, Bondi’s statement has left many feeling betrayed, prompting criticism from right-wing influencers and renewed scrutiny of Trump’s past ties to Epstein. With Acosta’s pointed remarks echoing broader frustrations, the issue may continue to haunt Trump’s circle as questions about transparency and accountability persist.