Donald Trump is fuming. As the president marked six months in office this week, the MAGA civil war over the Epstein files continued to dominate the news cycle, leaving the White House scrambling to find a way to stave off a growing political firestorm.

“The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the New York Times, seeking to rebut the tale of an Epstein accuser who said she had an alarming interaction with Trump in the 1990s. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also used the same line.