# Does Epstein Provide MAGA an Opportunity for an Honorable Exit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 18, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042 "2025-07-18T14:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/21 "2025-07-18T18:51:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > They do not want an honorable exit. Face saving exit would be a better phrasing. Preferably without feasting leopards. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/22 "2025-07-18T18:58:47Z")
> [@Zoobi](#): > > His base isn’t going to abandon him. A month from now all of this is going to look about as silly as when everyone thought the Signal “scandal” was finally going to be the thing that ruined Trump. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0BQZCIEsroM/hqdefault.jpg "Last Week Tonight, We got him (for real)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQZCIEsroM) Wait, what? We _ **don’t** _ got him? Sigh… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/23 "2025-07-18T19:06:08Z")
> [@Zoobi](#): > > His base isn’t going to abandon him. A month from now all of this is going to look about as silly as when everyone thought the Signal “scandal” was finally going to be the thing that ruined Trump. Alas, this is almost undoubtedly true. We’ve now spent _ten years_ navigating through various of Trump’s scandals, revelations, etc., all of which have had people saying “_This_ will be what finally makes his supporters abandon him!” Nope, nope, nope. Rather than suffering actual cognitive dissonance, MAGA Nation will swallow whatever “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia” line Trump tells them this time, and will recalibrate their thinking on Epstein to be either (a) there was never anything there in the first place, and/or (b) it’s all the Democrats’ fault, and anyone on “Epstein’s List” is a liberal pedophile anyway. If there will ever, finally, be a flavor of Kryptonite which dooms Trump, it’s going to be his own health. And, even then, it’s going to need to be something bigger than his weight, his incoherent rambling, his chronic venous insufficiency, etc.; it’ll have to be something which actually renders him dead or profoundly disabled. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/24 "2025-07-18T19:10:48Z")
I’d like to see his base become disillusioned and apolitical. Most of them didn’t give a shit about politics anyway until this abomination came along and fired their imagination. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/25 "2025-07-18T19:12:40Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’d like to see his base become disillusioned and apolitical. So say we all. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/26 "2025-07-18T19:16:46Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’d like to see his base become disillusioned and apolitical. I suspect they will eventually crawl back under their rocks. But that’s like having a real monster under your bed. I guess it’s good we know about them, but it doesn’t make me sit easy. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/27 "2025-07-18T19:36:16Z")
Even the conservative subreddits are in open revolt over this right now. ---
**Author:** ![knavette57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knavette57/32/3871_2.png) [@knavette57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knavette57)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/28 "2025-07-18T19:48:35Z")
A friend of mine reminded me recently that authoritarian governments do not want an armed populace. If we truly are going in that direction, owning guns will be a crime and dealt with accordingly. Of course, the MAGAs might be OK with that, if they no longer feel the need to defend themselves from “others.” As for Epstein &Co., the pussy grabbing statement and his adulteries and his hush money to Stormy and Jan 6 etc. changed not a thing with MAGA. Neither will this, but I hope I am wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/29 "2025-07-18T21:55:41Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Wait, what? We _ **don’t** _ got him? Sigh… Let’s be clear, I agree we don’t “got him.” When he won the last election, I realized it meant that Trump’s victory was pretty much complete. He’s never going to face any kind of punishment for what he’s done and he’ll finish out his term (unless health problems intervene). Even if he starts losing MAGA followers over this, Voldemort still won. Eventually MAGA is going to implode. That’s just the nature of cults of personality in general and especially so when it’s made up of a bunch of people who don’t trust government or one another. It’s just a matter of when it implodes. Will this be the start? I don’t know. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/30 "2025-07-18T23:03:42Z")
MAGA can’t abandon Trump, because they have nowhere else to go. The Epstein files, at their imagined worst, are still a minor issue compared with putting non-white people in their place and owning the libs on every other issue (i.e. the “achievements” of this administration that Trump wants his backers to remember). If Trump were to lose power due to some significant portion of MAGA abandoning him, MAGA would just disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/31 "2025-07-18T23:49:20Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > MAGA can’t abandon Trump, because they have nowhere else to go. There are no transfers of power in a cult of personality. Who are they going to follow, JD Vance? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/32 "2025-07-18T23:58:16Z")
The only that _might_ be different about this is that the whole MAGA movement was built on the belief that the Democratic party was little more than a monstrous pedophile scheme. Remember Pizzagate? The reason Hilary should be locked up was that she was involved. Of course, it will probably blow over, but this is a bit different. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/33 "2025-07-18T23:59:46Z")
In 2018, Trump suggested that the government confiscate guns and go through due process later. His supporters just pretended someone else said it ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/34 "2025-07-19T00:06:28Z")
MAGA \< snerk \> “honourably” \< snerk \> ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/35 "2025-07-19T00:49:01Z")
Politico: [WSJ bombshell unites a frayed MAGA: The latest development has, so far, created a rally-around-the-flag effect for the president](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/18/this-is-a-much-better-place-wsj-bombshell-unites-a-frayed-maga-00464182) I buy this. He will lose a few supporters, but not enough to be clearly noticeable in polling. MAGA does not want an exit. Trump can safely insult his supporters and they will not exit. Trump can give amnesty to the dreamers and MAGA won’t exit. If Trump started adhering to democratic norms, and kept it up month after month, that would be a problem for MAGA. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/36 "2025-07-19T02:08:23Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > The only that _might_ be different about this is that the whole MAGA movement was built on the belief that the Democratic party was little more than a monstrous pedophile scheme. Remember Pizzagate? The reason Hilary should be locked up was that she was involved. I don’t think this is true. For one thing, I always thought that Hilary should be locked up because of the emails and because of Bengazi. For the other thing, the pedophile ring thing always seemed to be pretty fringe to me, and MAGA is primarily driven by hatred and revenge, based on years of having to watch “those people” make advances from where they should be towards equality. I don’t actually pay attention to RW “news” sources so maybe my perceptions have been skewed by too much rationality. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/37 "2025-07-19T02:14:36Z")
Probably not but I think the problem here is MAGA pinned this as a scandal for Dems when Biden was in office (it was suggested at length and repeatedly by conservative talking heads who were pretty high on the totem pole). In the MAGA mind there is a scandal here and it is the Dems (somehow) getting away with it and that infuriates them. Surely Trump can’t be guilty, they think, so just release the files and go after Clinton and other liberals. ---
**Author:** ![TheBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@TheBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBryan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/38 "2025-07-19T02:55:29Z")
> [@knavette57](#): > > A friend of mine reminded me recently that authoritarian governments do not want an armed populace. If we truly are going in that direction, owning guns will be a crime and dealt with accordingly. Of course, the MAGAs might be OK with that, if they no longer feel the need to defend themselves from “others.” This isn’t true. This is a myth that the NRA has propagated. The reality is, fascist dictators rely on an armed populace. They need people creating chaos. The worse crime gets, the more they can tighten the clamps. They only take gun rights away from the groups they are trying to dehumanize, and they only do that once they’ve consolidated power. The only way to do that with the support of the people is for the dictator to blame all of those dehumanized people for all of the chaos the dictator has created. ---
**Author:** ![TheBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@TheBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBryan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/39 "2025-07-19T02:56:47Z")
Trump called his supporters “weaklings”, and they’re sitting around and saying “HAHA! He’s trolling us! Isn’t he the funniest president every??!?!!?!?” There might even be MAGA supporters sitting in the El Salvador concentration camp saying “this is the best troll ever!” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042/40 "2025-07-19T03:22:20Z")
> [@TheBryan](#): > > Trump called his supporters “weaklings”, and they’re sitting around and saying “HAHA! He’s trolling us! Isn’t he the funniest president every??!?!!?!?” In a sane world, that would have been his “Face in the Crowd” moment. But these people are far from sane. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-epstein-provide-maga-an-opportunity-for-an-honorable-exit/1021042.md?page=3)