Trump can't get his base to move on from Epstein

In today's edition, President Donald Trump struggles to turn the page on the Jeffrey Epstein saga while a politically vulnerable senator in Texas appeals to him for an endorsement. Plus, Andrea Mitchell files a dispatch from the Aspen Security Forum.

— Adam Wollner

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President Donald Trump can’t get his MAGA supporters to end their obsession with the Jeffrey Epstein files. And now he’s taking out his frustration on them.

In a blistering post on Truth Social, Trump continued to push his backers to stop talking about an issue that has driven what appears to be one of the most significant rifts between him and the political movement he built.

“[M]y PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls---’ hook, line, and sinker,” he said in the post, adding, “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”

Trump’s message Wednesday was a significant escalation, reflecting that his supporters aren’t all following his lead and adopting his messaging as they usually do. It’s also left MAGA-aligned media at a loss for what to do, torn between much of the base that continues to call for more documents related to Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, and Trump, who insists they should drop the issue.

“This is a major problem and could hurt turnout in the midterms,” a Republican strategist familiar with Trump’s political operation said. “It signals betrayal to those who believed the president would expose the deep state. His team made promises, then doubled down.”

On Capitol Hill: A growing number of Republicans are calling for the release of the Epstein files.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he found it “a little difficult to believe, the idea that the DOJ and the FBI who prosecuted cases relating to this don't have any idea who Epstein's clients were.”

“My view is make public, everything you can make public,” he told NBC News.

Democrats are continuing to attempt to drive a wedge between Republicans on the issue. As Julie Tsirkin reports, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is trying to force a vote on a resolution calling on the Justice Department to release its files related to the Epstein probe.

Read more on the Trump-MAGA rift →

Related: Ghislaine Maxwell's family appeals to Trump amid battle over Epstein files, by Matt Lavietes

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is making his case for the White House to get involved as he tries to fend off a primary challenge from state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

But, so far, President Donald Trump is staying on the sidelines.

“I’ve talked to him about it a number of times. He is not ready to make that endorsement,” Cornyn told NBC News. “I think as we start advertising and closing the gap in the polls, hopefully he’ll see fit to make that endorsement, but we can’t wait.”

“I pointed out to him, and he knows this, that if he endorsed me, the race would be over,” Cornyn later added.

Some Republicans are concerned that Paxton — a conservative firebrand with no shortage of personal controversies, including some that led to an impeachment push by a number of fellow Republicans in 2023 — could be a problematic general election candidate who would force national Republicans to spend millions to defend the longtime red seat.

Behind the scenes: The race came up at a White House meeting last week between Trump; Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.; staffers with the super PAC Senate Leadership Fund; and other former Trump campaign staffers. A source with knowledge of the meeting said the group agreed that Cornyn and allies need to focus over the summer on improving the incumbent’s poll numbers.

Paxton’s team has also been in touch with the White House political team and sharing polling data, according to a source close to his campaign.

The polls: In public surveys, the University of Texas at Tyler found Paxton leading Cornyn by 10 percentage points, 44%-34%, while Texas Southern University found Paxton leading by 9, 43%-34%. Both polls found about a quarter of voters undecided.

The money: New campaign finance reports show that Paxton raised $2.9 million from April through June and had $2.5 million in the bank. Meanwhile, Cornyn’s campaign raised $804,000 and ended the quarter with $5.9 million on hand, while his joint fundraising committee raised $3.1 million and had $2.7 million on hand.

The Cornyn campaign’s haul marked its second-worst quarter over the senator’s past two election cycles on the ballot (2020 and 2014).

Bottom line: This is far from the first time Cornyn has faced issues on his right flank. His most recent challenge came in 2014, when he won 59% of the GOP primary vote. But it may be the most dangerous moment of his Senate career.

Read more on the Texas Senate race →

Related: 5 takeaways from the latest campaign fundraising reports, by Ben Kamisar, Bridget Bowman and Joe Murphy

Do you have a news tip for our politics team? Tell us discreetly.

At the annual Aspen Security Forum today — listening and learning from U.S. and foreign experts on the Middle East, space defense, energy policy and international trade and aid, among other topics — there is an unprecedented absence of current administration officials. They were invited and only Pentagon officials accepted before canceling at the last minute.

Former U.S. Ambassador to China and NATO Nicholas Burns, currently co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group, lamented the decision. Burns, who began his career as a National Security Council officer under President George H.W. Bush, pointed out that the conference has always been a nonpartisan gathering for the exchange of ideas, and he hopes they will return next year.

The national political divide is being felt profoundly by deep cuts at the State Department and other government agencies, some of which Congress is formalizing with a rescissions package lawmakers are advancing. At Foggy Bottom, there were plenty of tears as veteran diplomats' and civil servants’ badges were revoked and they turned in their laptops and phones.

The climate office to negotiate current and future global agreements was eliminated. The State Department said it was being streamlined to make it more efficient and relevant. Among those also cut: senior intelligence analysts on Russia and Ukraine, hardly irrelevant. The relatively small State Department intelligence bureau — numbering a few hundred — was one of the only agencies dissenting against the false conclusion that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. launched the war in Iraq. And those fired included the East Asia analysts who had just prepared briefing papers on the global competition against China’s aggression in the South China Sea for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip to the ASEAN summit last week, a top policy priority for the White House.

Occasionally, President Donald Trump may discover having experts around can save him from embarrassing moments. One example is last week’s luncheon with visiting African leaders, when he praised Liberia’s president for his command of the English language and asked, “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Were you educated? Where?”

Briefers would have told him Liberia was settled by Americans in 1847 and is an English-speaking country. But the NSC — which had an admittedly bloated 300 staffers — now has approximately 50 staffers.

🤔 Will he or won’t he?: Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would fire Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, less than 24 hours after telling Republican lawmakers that he was considering doing so. Read more →

☑️ Concerned, but voting aye: The Senate is set to approve a rescissions package that would claw back $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, despite reservations from GOP lawmakers. Read more →

🔊Sales pitch: Vice President JD Vance urged a Pennsylvania audience to “talk to your friends” about the megabill Trump recently signed into law. Read more →

✈️ Mass deportation agenda: The Department of Homeland Security resumed third-country deportation flights by sending five immigrant detainees, all from different countries, to the small nation of Eswatini in southern Africa. Read more →

⚫ Middle East latest: U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee demanded that Israel “aggressively investigate the murder” of an American who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Read more →

🗳️ About last night: Arizona Democrats have nominated Adelita Grijalva, daughter of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, to fill his former seat in a September special election. Read more →

🎙️ Into the podverse: Former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison launched a new podcast — and one of his first guests will be Hunter Biden. Read more →

👀 Speculation quashed: Barack and Michelle Obama laughed off divorce rumors during a new episode of the former first lady’s podcast. Read more →

Follow live politics updates →

That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. Thanks to Dylan Ebs for helping compile today’s newsletter.

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