To hear legacy media honcho Maureen Dowd of the New York Times tell it, President Trump has lost his legion of MAGA followers because he won’t release deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list” (a list that the Justice Department says does not exist).

“Trump’s supporters thought he would shed light on shady elites protecting their own money and power. Now MAGA is reckoning with the fact that Trump is the shady elite, shielding information about Jeffrey Epstein,” the Gray Lady sage wrote this week. 

But that was before the Wall Street Journal targeted Mr. Trump with a 22-year-old claim that the president provided a sexually suggestive letter that was included in a 2003 album compiled for the sex pervert’s 50th birthday.

Mr. Trump promptly denied writing the letter, calling the story “false, malicious, and defamatory,” and filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Journal, with which he has repeatedly clashed in both his terms as president.

The WSJ story, initially expected to sour his relationship with his 77 million Make America Great Again followers, appears to have had the opposite effect, uniting MAGA supporters against their longtime target: the media.

“We’re so back. Everyone is firing on all cylinders. The MAGA movement is completely united behind this fight,” Jack Posobiec, a podcaster who had been one of the loudest voices pushing the Epstein issue, told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

“We have to be on the offensive all the time,” Mr. Bannon told his audience, saying of Mr. Trump, “They tried to actually destroy him.”

“The ‘new’ target is the ‘original’ target — the Deep State and its media partners. President Trump and MAGA are always more effective on offense,” Mr. Bannon told Politico. “Unity of forces to attack, attack, attack.”

Mr. Trump did make an effort on Thursday to assuage his followers, asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.” That move drew praise from another conservative podcaster, Charlie Kirk.

“He gets attacked just relentlessly by the Wall Street Journal in such an uncalled for way, and we have his back 100 percent against this smearing and this slandering,” Mr. Kirk said on his show. “So for any of you in the audience that were a little uneasy, that were a little anxious, I think it’s morally incumbent on you to say thank you President Trump, thank you for stepping up and for doing this.”

Even Elon Musk, who after a falling out claimed Mr. Trump’s name is in the “Epstein files,” came to the president’s defense. The WSJ article said the letter Mr. Trump provided said “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” Mr. Musk wrote on X.

After the DOJ last week announced that there is no “client list,” that Mr. Epstein committed suicide and that no other charges are expected, some vocal MAGA supporters decried the move. Conservative firebrand Laura Loomer warned that the “poorly” handled Epstein saga could “consume” Trump’s presidency. 

Mr. Trump responded with anger – even at his supporters – dismissing the Epstein story as a “hoax,” a “scam,” and “bullshit.” He accused Democrats of fabricating documents and bashed his MAGA supporters, calling them “weaklings.”

The Democrats’ “new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “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!”