Trump World Starts to Cannibalize Itself Over Pam Bondi’s Epstein Binder Backlash

Over the last week, being literate has made me feel like an insane person. On Wednesday, the Trump administration, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, pledged to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files, referring to the list of Epstein associates who collaborated with the known human trafficker. Trump supporters, many of whom buy into right-wing conspiracy theories about Democrats running a human trafficking cabal, as well as large swaths of the internet, were frothing at the mouth for the supposedly big, shocking reveal coming our way.

I, personally, expected nothing! Gawker (RIP) published Epstein’s notorious little black book in 2015. Plus, Trump and others in his orbit have been linked with Epstein and/or accused of sexual violence themselves—why would any sane person expect them to incriminate themselves??? 

Nonetheless, Trump World massively hyped up the drop—phase 1 of it, that is—like it was the series finale of Severance. But not unlike the Nathan Fielder “I hope you’re hungry for… nothing!” meme, right-wing influencers who promised their eager followers a hot, scandalous dump of new Epstein list names failed to deliver because—surprise!—Bondi’s office gave them nothing. Now Trump World is descending into chaos.

Let me back up. On Thursday, the White House ceremoniously invited 15 far-right influencers cosplaying as journalists to meet President Trump and Vice President JD Vance. They were then honored with “Epstein binders” from Bondi. The influencers included Chaya Raichik, the bigot behind the viral “LibsofTikTok” account who’s galvanized her followers to send bomb threats to elementary schools, and Pizzagate’s very own Mike Cernovich, who is accused of sexual assault himself. They then posed outside the White House with their binders, giddily smiling and laughing for the cameras. 

libsoftiktok laughing and smiling about young girls being trafficked and assaulted 🆒 https://t.co/VV0l8MeDzI

— Kylie Cheung (@kylietcheung) February 27, 2025

Even for the times we’re in, it was pretty sickening. Mind you, these are people who have made lucrative careers out of pretending to care about “protecting children” and framing the very existence of LGBTQ people in proximity to children as “child abuse.” And it wasn’t just Raichik and Cernovich behaving wildly inappropriately with the so-called Epstein binders. On Thursday afternoon, the House GOP Judicial Committee pretended to tweet a link to the Epstein files, but it was just a rickroll. First: It’s fucking 2025. Get a new joke. Second: How deranged do you have to be to think sex trafficking is a laughing matter?? Anyone who’s ever genuinely believed the right cares about protecting children is a moron. Let us all remember their smug trolling over young girls who were trafficked by Epstein next time they fake-cry over gay people daring to exist near children.

Now, for what was in those binders: Nothing! As several journalists pointed out, the binders contained information that’s been widely available online for years. Photos of the pages show they were heavily redacted—which, in some ways, is a confession, as some social media users have raised. 

Far-right podcaster Liz Wheeler told her followers point-blank that the binders contained nothing new: “We’re all waiting for juicy stuff. And that’s not what’s in this binder. That’s not what’s in this binder at all. And that’s exactly how the attorney general presented it to us.” Even Laura Loomer tweeted, “So basically the Epstein files weren’t released today. The American people were lied to about a ‘Day 1 Release’ so they had to have an emergency gathering of paid social media influencers at the White House to convince the right that a promise made was kept… What an insult to the American people.” Loomer’s full tweet was surprisingly pretty scathing, though, tellingly, she largely blamed Bondi rather than Trump, suggesting Bondi herself is trying to protect Epstein associates. Bondi “was the Florida Attorney General from 2011 to 2019,” Loomer wrote. “During that time, she had every opportunity to come down on Jeffery Epstein, who lived in Palm Beach, FL, but she didn’t.” Reminder: Even a broken clock is right twice a day!

So basically the Epstein files weren’t released today.

The American people were lied to about a “Day 1 Release” so they had to have an emergency gathering of paid social media influencers at the White House to convince the right that a promise made was kept.@PamBondi was the…

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) February 27, 2025

“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote on Twitter.

Now, predictably enough, Bondi is in damage control mode. Since Thursday afternoon, the attorney general has tried to shift blame for the empty binders to the FBI, led by FBI Director Kash Patel. Bondi claimed that she promised what she’d promised because “the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.” She further called on the FBI to release the full Epstein files; Patel’s office has yet to do so. As of Friday, Bondi is reportedly trying to wield this situation “as an excuse” to try to “fire a bunch of people from the FBI field office in New York,” per Business Insider. The right-wing National Post further reports that Bondi didn’t want the public to know about the release of the Epstein binders to hand-picked far-right influencers and didn’t approve of the photo op outside the White House. Oopsies!

Incidentally, all of this happened on the same day that alleged (and, I’d argue, self-admitted) human traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate returned to the U.S. from Romania, reportedly with the help of the Trump administration. So, it wasn’t exactly great optics for the administration to face backlash for releasing heavily redacted Epstein binders at the same time that it seemingly welcomed men like the Tates back to the country. One popular right-wing podcaster tweeted, “I voted for an administration that would stop human trafficking at our borders. I voted to get rapists and pedophiles off the streets. Trump’s action in freeing the Tate brothers was a stunning betrayal of his mandate.” 

I don’t know what to tell anyone in Trump World who’s disappointed or upset right now—at Bondi for failing to deliver anything juicy, at far-right influencers who basically grifted off the whole thing, at Trump for posing as an anti-human trafficking hero when, himself, was friends with Epstein. You weren’t tricked. This is actually exactly who you voted for. Congrats!