'We've Been Played': MAGA Faces Its Own Disappointment With Trump

 https://www.newsweek.com/maga-donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-conspiracy-theories-2097180

The disappointment has been particularly acute around the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files and the long-anticipated "deep state" disclosures, which have instead reinforced official narratives MAGA supporters once rejected.

"MAGA really wouldn't exist without conspiracy theories," said Eric Alterman, a journalism professor at Brooklyn College. "These theories don't require evidence. They're about stories people tell themselves to explain why things feel like they're going wrong in their lives."

That expectation of dramatic revelations has become a defining feature of MAGA-era politics. From alleged UFO cover-ups to Epstein's supposed "client list," Trump loyalists — and sometimes Trump himself — stoked the belief that sinister truths would soon be exposed and that the Deep State was partly to blame.

Yet the much-anticipated Epstein review recently released by his own Justice Department concluded there was no client list and no evidence of foul play in Epstein's suicide — a finding that infuriated his supporters and alternative media figures who had built careers around pursuing that narrative.