Kirk downplays the situation: “A lot of this is largely just a misunderstanding.”

For President Donald Trump, whose political career has benefited from voter anxiety over Washington elites, the health of his predecessor and the riches of Wall Street, the past week offered a reversal of fortune.

Kirk disparaged multiple media outlets during Tuesday’s The Charlie Kirk Show for reporting on his Monday comments, accusing them of not including his full comments that indicated his “pause” was temporary. (The Daily Beast, which Kirk looped into a graphic of headlines, did include his full quote.)

Charlie Kirk responds to a 14-second clip from his podcast that went viral this week, where he said: "I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being. I'm gonna trust my friends in the administration and the government to do what needs to be done.

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.

"We are messengers here. We are relaying what we are hearing from your most loyal ultra MAGA supporters all the time," he added.

The White House on Thursday attempted to close the door on President Donald Trump’s role in the Jeffrey Epstein saga, rejecting calls from within his own political base for a special prosecutor and casting his recent comments about the “Epstein Hoax” as a swipe at Democrats,

"I'm gonna trust my friends in the administration, I'm gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done"

Despite days of claiming the controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein was a hoax, President Trump is taking the extraordinary step of calling for the release of grand jury testimony related to the deceased convicted sex offender’s case.