What's really fascinating to me, is that for all of Trump's ability and expertise at finding and engaging audiences both on his TV show and in real life, and giving them what he wants (witness a lot of his rallies), he really fucked up here, not understanding two unique groups of people:
The conspiracy types. He and the folks around him do not understand these people at all, because the conspiracy types are just marks to Trump and Co., people to be grifted off of. If they were ants, Trump would be the kid with the magnifying glass. He's clearly confused why they aren't A) obeying his command to drop the topic and B) obsessed with it. These people exist around and outside of MAGA and are probably pretty close to single-issue voters. And whether they believe he is 100% in on the conspiracy to cover shit up, or that he's compromised in some way and has to go along with a cover-up, it doesn't matter to them because the outcome is the same - pedophiles/etc. are being covered up. In fact, him promising to release the files during the campaign, and now trying to cover up things after the binders given to right-wing influencers, and with Bondi's "Epstein client list sitting on my desk" bullshit is just more evidence in their minds that the conspiracy exists and goes all the way to the top of the government.
Calling these people "weaklings" and claiming it was a Democrat hoax made things so much worse, because now they are pissed off - a lot of conspiracy nuts love conspiracies because in their minds, they know The Truth and it's like living in a Hollywood movie for them, like they are in on Major Shit, and the President of the United States is ridiculing them and claiming they are part of a hoax.
The other group he doesn't understand is the vloggers/bloggers on the fringe (that have a large following), that are right now considered "right-wing" but again, like the conspiracy nuts, they exist around and outside of MAGA - at the end of the day, they aren't chasing MAGA because MAGA is comfortably watching Fox News. Not that they wouldn't like some viral moments and some shout-outs in the MAGA blogosphere or whatever, but they aren't competing with Fox News, they are competing with each other and with the truly fringe outlets (News Max, etc.). Now among this group, there are True Believers that fall into the first category, and they will act just like the first group above. But there are also pragmatic types that are just making a quick buck off of this group. They could give a shit about Epstein, but Epstein brings in the eyeballs and the advertising bucks. Trump is not doing them any favors whatsoever, so they aren't necessarily going to fall in line (Charlie Kirk being an exception). The pragmatics are chasing the buck and Epstein is going to bring in more than talking about Trump or Trump's other policies/changes. Trump calling these people crazy, weaklings, hoaxers, Democrats, etc. is only going to add fuel to the fire.