President Donald Trump continued Wednesday to dismiss calls within his own party for more transparency into the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and made claims, without evidence, that the controversy was designed to undermine him.

Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 2021 trial of Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier's longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testified that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times. Trump has denied ever being on the plane and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized fellow Republicans on Wednesday for questioning his administrations handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Labeling the controversy a Democrat hoax, Trump accused GOP

Democrats are echoing criticism from the right of how Donald Trump and his administration have handled case files related to Jeffrey Epstein — a change from Trump’s first term.

In January 2024, a court unsealed nearly 1,000 pages of documents collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide on April 26 at her home in Neergabby, Australia, against Maxwell.

The refusal of Trump’s base to believe the DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s newest assessment of the Epstein files is visibly frustrating the president, who has lashed out at his followers on social media and derided reporters for questioning the new narrative.

Over the course of the event, it became clear that there are now five distinct Epstein factions within the MAGA movement, creating a type of factionalism that is uncommon among Trump’s backers. Here, dear reader, is your handy guide to those factions.