• Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk responded to Donald Trump’s social media post attacking his own supporters: “As President Donald Trump is upset on Truth Social, I do not think he’s attacking all of you in the rank-an-file. Instead, President Donald Trump is venting off some anger right now.”
• Despite Trump promising to release the Epstein files during the 2024 presidential election, Newsmax’s Greg Kelly said Trump “never promised anybody anything about Epstein.” 

• Daily Wire host Matt Walsh on Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh: “He was born in America, but he’s not actually an American.” 
• Fox host Brian Kilmeade on a California farm worker who died fleeing an ICE raid: “Sad, but why are you running?” 
• Media Matters created a new TikTok account that was propelled into a pro-eating disorder void.

• Charlie Kirk complained of “young women that are infected with the Jezebel spirit that had no interest in getting married or having children, that wanted to be the boss of the relationship.”
• Right-wing voices in Spanish-language news media have begun to speak out against Trump’s mass deportation efforts after seeing his administration target legal immigrants and American citizens. 
• Fox News ran defense for the Trump administration on its delayed response to deadly flooding in Texas.  
• War Room host Steve Bannon suggested that a special counsel will be named within days to look at Crossfire Hurricane, the 2020 election, January 6, and more.

The Trump administration’s release of the Epstein memo has caused turmoil in right-wing media, and some callers on conservative radio shows are demanding answers. They’ve said they’re “angry,” accused President Donald Trump of “the ultimate betrayal,” and claimed Attorney General Pam Bondi “messed up” in her handling of the situation. 

Trump ordered right-wing media to move on from covering Epstein, and Fox News hosts and other MAGA media elites followed. On Monday, Epstein’s name was brought up only eight times across Fox’s programming. By contrast, Fox name-checked former President Joe Biden 158 times that same day. Newsmax noticed the drop in Epstein coverage on Fox, with host Rob Schmitt saying Wednesday, “You may have noticed the Epstein story was almost nowhere to be found, though, on Fox News these last couple of days.” 

Charlie Kirk is an interesting case study. On the Monday edition of his radio show, Kirk said, “I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being.” But then on Tuesday, Kirk said he would continue to talk about Epstein, claiming, “When I said for the time being, I was talking yesterday.” And then on Wednesday, Kirk said, “We’re getting flooded with thousands, hundreds of thousands of comments that are very unhappy,” and he complained about the lack of messaging guidance from the Trump administration. 

Trump’s order to move on didn’t seep into his MAGA base. Media Matters’ President Angelo Carusone explained how callers to MAGA shows are reacting to Trump’s sudden “betrayal” on the Epstein story. 

MAGA political and media elites have been hoisted by their own petard. They’ve spent years priming the MAGA base with conspiracy theories, and now they’re paying for it. What’s clear from this week is they can’t wave a magic wand and make the Epstein saga go away — their base won’t allow it.

Right-wing media have heralded the Trump administration’s draconian “Alligator Alcatraz” as a detention center for “pedophiles” and “drug traffickers.” However, new reporting shows over 250 detainees have no criminal charges. 

Contrary to right-wing media’s narrative about the detention center, detainees include asylum-seekers and people who have been held over minor infractions like traffic violations — despite insistence from right-wing media figures that the harsh camp would be reserved for “the worst of the worst” and the “baddest of the bad hombres,” with one calling the detainees “subhuman.” 

Meanwhile, many right-wing figures and social media influencers are sharing seemingly AI-generated content about this detention center, including images of alligators in “ICE” hats and a picture of a prison surrounded by a moat. Some of the images were previously shared by the White House and Department of Homeland Security. 

The detention camp is located in the Florida Everglades, reportedly surrounded by alligators and other dangerous animals. Seizing on this fact, figures in right-wing media have flippantly remarked about “feeding illegals to the gators” and referred to detainees as “fresh meat.”

Fox News is continuing its previous celebrations and defenses of Donald Trump’s destructive tariff impulses as evidence shows that prices are accelerating and a key inflation indicator jumped to its highest level in four months. Trump’s sycophants on Fox deny the tariffs have anything to do with the acceleration as his massive country-by-country tariffs are set to resume in just two weeks. 

Fox’s praise for Trump amid an acceleration in the inflation rate stands in stark contrast to how the MAGA network covered inflation under former President Joe Biden, having specifically attacked the president over inflation even as it declined or remained flat. 

Experts have long predicted that Trump’s agenda of universal tariffs and mass deportation would be inflationary. Indeed, the inflationary effect of Trump’s tariffs may worsen as he continues threatening massive tariff increases on products from dozens of countries beginning August 1.