Republican rebel Thomas Massie gave Donald Trump a jab over Jeffrey Epstein, sarcastically suggesting Ghislaine Maxwell should be pardoned if, as the president insists, the saga is just another “hoax.”
Trump has begun calling the Epstein case fake news as he comes under pressure from across the political spectrum—and especially the MAGA hardcore—over his administration’s failure to act on its campaign promise to release the “Epstein files.”
He raged about the issue Wednesday on Real America’s Voice, dismissing the entire affair as “another hoax… put out by the Democrats,” and complaining that “weaklings” in his own party had swallowed it “hook, line, and sinker.”
Critics have suggested the president may be backing away from his pledge to release the files because of his own longstanding links to the late pedophile financier. They include former “first buddy” Elon Musk, who tweeted in early June that Trump’s name appears in them.

The absurdity of Trump calling the case a hoax—and there not being any kind of “client list,” as the Department of Justice insists—given that Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in federal prison after being convicted in 2021 of sex-trafficking minors for Epstein, was not lost on Massie.
Speaking to MailOnline, the Kentucky congressman sneered, “I guess Ghislaine Maxwell should be getting a pardon because it’s a ‘hoax’ now.”
The Daily Beast has approached The White House for comment.
Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna are trying to force a House vote to pry loose the Epstein files—a move backed by normally pro-Trump figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Michael Flynn, highlighting just how divisive the “hoax” claim has become inside MAGAworld.
However, Massie is not the only high-profile figure to use Maxwell’s jailing to ridicule Trump’s “hoax” patter, and the president’s flip-flopping over Epstein has reignited MAGA infighting, with Alex Jones calling the episode a “trainwreck.”
Tesla CEO Musk fired off 13 rapid-fire X posts on Wednesday, mocking Trump’s claim, while noting that Maxwell is still in jail.
He complained that “not a single Epstein client has been prosecuted,” and resurfaced his June allegation that Trump’s own name is in the secret records, suggesting the president is blocking their release.
There are growing calls for Maxwell to give evidence about the matter. “If she’s willing to testify, we have to call her into the Judiciary Committee and put her under oath and have her testify,” Judiciary subcommittee chairman Josh Hawley said on Tuesday.

Massie’s snark is only the latest volley in a five-year blood feud between the pair. When Massie demanded a roll-call vote on Trump’s first COVID rescue bill in 2020, the president blasted him as a “third-rate Grandstander” who should be tossed from the GOP.
Trump rekindled the vendetta last month, snarling on Truth Social that “MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague,” and bankrolling attack ads to oust him in 2026.
If intimidation was the plan, Musk spoiled it. Asked who would bankroll Massie’s re-election, the Tesla titan replied simply “Me,” turning the contest into a “proxy war” with the White House.