• Newsmax’s Greg Kelly: “Maybe Epstein is a patriot, for crying out loud. Maybe he was just doing what he was told, and it had nothing to do with the girls.” 
• Fox News hosts launched an extended and unhinged attack on Superman’s message of kindness toward immigrants. 
• Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Texas flooding: “What you are not being told by the media anywhere is that the death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn’t for DEI.”

• Right-wing media downplayed the likelihood of a measles outbreak. U.S. cases just reached a new high.
• The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles: “You can’t just deport the ones with face tattoos. You do, kind of, have to deport abuela.” 
• Fox’s Jesse Watters accused Democrats of “straight up treason.”

• Greg Kelly: “Habeas corpus is great, but I don’t think it applies to an illegal alien.” 
• The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro said Tucker Carlson is “quite fond of regimes that do not like the United States.”
• Newsmax host Rob Finnerty responded to the announcement of criminal investigations into James Comey and John Brennan: “It’s almost like the Justice Department doesn’t want us talking about Jeffrey Epstein anymore.” 
• Charlie Kirk called for Trump to put tariffs on Brazil in response to the trial of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump just threatened tariffs.

On Sunday, Axios reported that the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded there was no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein had a blackmail “client list” or was murdered. Those findings repudiated claims that had for years permeated the MAGA influencer ecosystem and been prompted by the stars of Fox News and broader right-wing media. The Trump-appointed leaders of both the FBI and DOJ had previously stoked the same conspiracy theories their agencies rejected. Now, those figures are coming under fire from the same right-wing fever swamp they stoked for failing to confirm their delusions. 

Throughout this week, right-wing media figures have been berating Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, for the lackluster Epstein report. Those who aren’t attacking the administration are tying themselves in knots and spinning conspiracy theories to come up with some way to avoid blaming President Donald Trump or the DOJ. 

The Epstein saga demonstrates that the Trump administration is in hock to some of the most deranged conspiracy theorists imaginable, treating them as among its closest allies and devoting substantial resources to their care and feeding. Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote this great analysis of how the Epstein saga operates in right-wing media. 

Ultimately, when the Epstein conspiracy theories are firmly in the rearview, everyone involved in propagating them will retain their influence over a Trump administration that is more concerned with placating them than in acting in the public interest. And that is truly dangerous.

Take the canceled Fox Business program of the late Lou Dobbs, of whom Fox’s president once said, “The North Koreans do a more nuanced show.” Now move the show to Fox News, sub out Dobbs for President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, and give her a guest list culled from the leading lights of the Trump administration, the MAGA movement, and the Republican Party. You’ve just described My View with Lara Trump, the ludicrous propaganda program Fox airs on Saturday nights. 

Lara Trump previously worked as a well-compensated senior adviser on her father-in-law’s 2020 presidential campaign, then became a Fox contributor, and then co-chair of the Republican National Committee during his 2024 run. She took her latest trip through the Fox-Trump revolving door shortly after President Trump’s inauguration when the network announced her hiring and forthcoming show, which debuted in February. 

It should go without saying that it is wildly unethical for a purported news outlet to turn over network airtime to a family member of the president so she can relentlessly promote his agenda and routinely interview his top officials. But Fox executives have apparently given up even the pretense that the network is something more than Trump’s personal megaphone. The program is a testament to how the Trump family, Fox News, the GOP, and the Trump administration are inseparable organs of the same body. 

Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote this great piece analyzing Lara Trump’s show. I invite you to read it here.

Newsmax guest Bill O’Reilly said on Wednesday night that Jeffrey Epstein “got a very soft touch” from authorities in Florida who “did not prosecute Epstein correctly,” referring to the sweetheart federal nonprosecution agreement Epstein received in 2008. The prosecutor who oversaw that plea deal — and later served in Donald Trump’s cabinet during his first administration — joined Newsmax’s board of directors earlier this year. 

Newsmax revealed on June 11 that former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta was appointed to the company’s board. Prior to his time in Trump’s cabinet, Acosta served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The Newsmax release does not detail the circumstances under which Acosta stepped down from his position in Trump’s cabinet. In 2019, a Florida judge ruled that prosecutors, led by Acosta, had violated federal law by signing the Epstein plea agreement without notifying his victims, while a 2020 Justice Department report found that Acosta had exercised “poor judgement” in doing so. 

Acosta’s position in the first Trump administration is one of the numerous connections between Epstein and the president and his associates — which are typically ignored in MAGA conspiracy theories. 

A few months after Acosta joined the Newsmax board, Trump Media and Technology Group announced that it had reached a deal with Newsmax to stream its content.