Former CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta claims that President Donald Trump is visibly rattled amid the political firestorm ignited by the recent revelations surrounding the “Epstein files.”
Speaking on MSNBC Sunday, Acosta didn’t hold back:
“You know, I’ve been around Donald Trump. I’ve been up close with him. I think I know when he’s worried—and he is freaking out right now over these Epstein files,” he said. “He’s twisted himself into a pretzel on this.”
Acosta’s remarks come just days after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI officially concluded that Jeffrey Epstein—disgraced financier and convicted sex offender—died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019, not by foul play, and that no “client list” of wealthy elites ever existed in official government records. The announcement has dealt a heavy blow to long-held conspiracy theories among Trump’s MAGA base, who have demanded transparency and accountability for years.
The backlash was immediate. Trump supporters turned their anger toward Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had previously claimed in February that she was reviewing Epstein’s alleged “client list,” which she said was “sitting on my desk.”
This week, tensions boiled over inside the administration when FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino openly criticized Bondi for overpromising and failing to produce results. Bongino reportedly did not report to work on Friday and has threatened to resign over the dispute.
In an effort to tamp down the unrest, Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend, posting:
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
But according to Acosta, Trump’s tone and behavior suggest something deeper is brewing beneath the surface.
“The bigger question,” Acosta noted, “is whether Trump himself was pushing DOJ and FBI officials to shut this thing down—or worse, manipulate public perception. That’s the real story here.”
Acosta, who left CNN earlier this year following an internal programming shift, has long been one of Trump’s most vocal media critics. Trump once labeled him a “major sleazebag”—a title Acosta seemed to wear with pride.
As controversy continues to swirl around the fallout from the Epstein probe, questions are mounting not only about Epstein’s death, but also about how much influence Trump may have exerted on the investigation—and whether internal fractures within the MAGA camp are growing too large to ignore.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment, but has not yet received a response.