President Donald Trump is turning up the heat on members of his own party, threatening House Republicans who are backing a bipartisan effort to force the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. As pressure mounts from both sides of the aisle, the White House has warned that support for the move would be viewed by the administration as “a very hostile act.”
The threat comes as Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna spearhead a discharge petition to force a floor vote on releasing the full, unredacted records related to Epstein’s decades-long sex trafficking operation and his ties to powerful elites.
“People want these files released,” Massie said Tuesday. “I mean, look, it’s not the biggest issue in the country. It’s taxes, jobs, the economy; those are always the big issues. But you really can’t solve any of that if this place is corrupt.”
As of Tuesday evening, the petition had been signed by Massie, Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. With all 212 Democrats expected to sign, only two more GOP votes are needed to force the issue onto the House floor.
But Trump team is pushing back. A senior White House official told CNN the president views the petition as a direct attack on his administration — and that message is echoing through GOP circles: fall in line, or face the consequences.
“Helping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the Oversight Committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration,” the official said.
Massie, however, isn’t backing down. “There’s a major pressure campaign from the White House right now, and also from the speaker,” he said. “But I think there are enough Republicans who are listening to their constituents and care about these victims that we’ll get the 218 signatures we need.”
Support for the petition surged after a private Oversight Committee meeting with Epstein’s victims. Rep. Nancy Mace left the session in tears and later revealed she was a “recent survivor.”
Greene, a Trump ally on most issues, broke with the president over the Epstein files. “I’m committed to doing everything possible for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. Including exposing the cabal of rich and powerful elites that enabled this,” she wrote on X. “I’m proud to be signing @RepThomasMassie‘s discharge petition.”
I’m committed to doing everything possible for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein.
Including exposing the cabal of rich and powerful elites that enabled this.
I’m proud to be signing @RepThomasMassie‘s discharge petition. pic.twitter.com/ODd026a45E
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) September 2, 2025
Greene’s signature marks a serious fracture in the GOP’s usually united front behind Trump, especially on matters involving political accountability.
Despite the media firestorm surrounding the Epstein documents, Trump has remained silent about the issue publicly. His Truth Social feed has made no mention of the release or the petition, even as the story dominates headlines.
Massie says the silence is intentional.
“I think he thinks he can just make this go away by telling people there’s nothing here,” Massie told ABC News. “That is why I think that my Republican colleagues will ultimately sign this discharge petition… even though on this issue, they might be against what the president’s saying, they’re actually with the president’s base.”
That base, according to Massie, wants answers—especially after years of speculation about who Epstein was connected to, what the government knew, and why justice has remained elusive for so long.
Rep. Ro Khanna echoed that sentiment, emphasizing transparency over politics.
“The President of the United States ran on releasing the files, and the Attorney General said that there’s a client list and the files need to be released,” Khanna told MSNBC. “We need to have the overarching value of trust in government be there. And in this case, as an exception, we should release everything and trust the American people to make a distinguishing discernment between someone who got a scholarship grant from Epstein and someone who was at a sex party for Epstein.”
That nuance hasn’t slowed the backlash from Trumpworld, which appears more concerned with maintaining control over the narrative than offering accountability for Epstein’s many high-powered connections—including potentially Trump himself.
If two more House Republicans break ranks and sign the petition, it would force a floor vote—one that could reveal which members of Congress truly want transparency, and which are still protecting the shadows.
Right now, the pressure is at a boiling point.
Massie and Khanna’s effort is a rare moment of unity in a fractured Congress. But for Trump, it’s clearly personal. He doesn’t want this vote to happen. And his warning is simple: Cross me, and you’re done.
The question is—will anyone in the GOP have the spine to cross him?
