“This is a total fucking disaster,” an anonymous intelligence source recently said, of the crisis swiftly engulfing the Donald Trump’s Justice Department. That crisis involves the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Trump previously promised to release to the public when he took office. Of course, the files were never released. Instead, Trump officials have hemmed and hawed, made many confusing and contradictory statements about the matter, and, this week, basically threw up their hands to indicate there was nothing more to reveal. The ensuing public outcry threatens to permanently fracture Trump’s political base, while providing his newly christened enemy, Elon Musk, with the perfect opportunity to exploit the situation for his own gain.

Trump and Musk—considered best pals only some six weeks ago—are now locked in a very public battle over their diverging agendas. As Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill snubbed the EV tax credit that has long helped the industry that Musk’s Tesla dominates, Musk has repeatedly attacked the administration, accusing it of betraying Americans’ interests. More recently, Musk claimed that he would start a new political party, dubbed the “America Party,” which could spell trouble for Trump and the GOP were it to actually materialize.

As Trump’s government has refused to release more information on Epstein, Musk has pounced on the opportunity to sow mistrust against his former pal. This week, the tech billionaire kicked things off with a flurry of messaging that painted the Trump government as corrupt. “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” Musk tweeted on Tuesday. On the same day, Musk retweeted a Babylon Bee article mocking the Trump Justice Department’s stance on Epstein. Not long afterward, he retweeted an account that tweeted: “If the entire government is protecting pedophiles, it has officially become the government against the people. I hope you all understand that.” Later, the billionaire claimed that, once it was up and running, his America Party would prioritize the release of the Epstein documents.

In all likelihood, this is just the beginning of an ongoing Musk tweet-storm that will continually emphasize the administration’s failure on this issue. That’s really not great news for Trump, since Musk currently owns one of the most widely used social media platforms on the planet.

Trump has survived two impeachment proceedings, multiple assassination attempts, a never-ending stream of political protests, and the unmitigated hatred of half the country. Still, over the past decade, his popularity with conservative voters has only grown. Yet the Epstein crisis seems increasingly like the one scandal that has the power to break the spell that Trump has cast over his followers. It’s also a scandal that, despite the administration’s protestations, isn’t going away.

During a press conference Tuesday, when asked whether Epstein was an intelligence agent (as has long been alleged), Trump blew his stack, apparently fed up with the public’s interest in his former friend: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy has been talked about for years,” Trump asked, incredulous. “Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?”

Unfortunately for Trump, the answer is: Yes, more so now than ever. The number of rightwing influencers who have criticized Trump and his administration over the past few days is somewhat mind-boggling. Trump has arguably navigated his professional life by often making promises that he can’t actually keep. This is one that he really should have kept.

For the better part of a decade, what might be termed the “Trump consensus” brought together disparate rightwing constituencies to form a thing called the MAGA movement. That movement has always been defined by varying (and sometimes contradictory) ideological concerns—including cultural and economic disenfranchisement, cryptocurrency, anti-militarism, a need to fight the “woke mind virus,” and permission to say the word “retard” in public, etc. However, its central plank has always been the belief that Trump is somehow different than other politicians. He was considered different because his supporters thought he spoke the truth (more or less), and wasn’t beholden to the “system” or the “deep state” or whatever you’d like to call it. Trump’s reneging on the Epstein issue threatens to shatter that perception for good, which could ultimately lead to disillusionment and defection within his base.

Indeed, the MAGA movement currently shows signs of cannibalizing itself, as its most prominent voices increasingly seem unable to agree on a common narrative. Tucker Carlson, a longtime supporter of Trump, has torn into the DOJ’s mishandling of the Epstein issue, accusing the agency of “covering up” the pedophile’s “crimes and murder.” Rightwing troll Ben Shapiro, meanwhile, has argued that, actually, we should all believe Trump’s administration—a posture that has caught him plenty of flak online. Roger Stone, the conservative provocateur, recently threw suspicion on Trump’s former right-hand man, Steve Bannon, for having met with Epstein while he was in prison. Not long afterward, Musk accused Bannon of being in the Epstein files. Glenn Beck, America’s original rightwing idiot, has expressed outrage over the DOJ’s activities and has suggested that Bondi resign for incompetence. Laura Loomer is calling for Bondi to be fired, accusing Trump’s AG of “covering up child sex crimes.”

In short, the Epstein issue has MAGA at each other’s throats. The infighting provides the perfect opportunity for Musk to exploit the ensuing divisions and peel off defectors to join his new political community—the likes of which seems less designed to “fix” America (as Musk has claimed) and more designed to intentionally inflict damage on Trump politically. That said, it’s unclear whether Musk is actually serious about starting a political party, as the challenges posed by actually doing that could prove more headache-inducing than he wants. Still, were Musk’s revenge-fueled political organization to emerge, it now has a whole lot of pissed off Trumpers that could be harnessed to form a new constituency. Even if Musk doesn’t actually form a political party, the Epstein issue will doubtlessly provide him the perfect way to needle his former “friend”—through juvenile memes, of course.