Donald Trump called up the late conservative gadfly Charlie Kirk last July and berated him for letting one of his Turning Point rallies spiral into anger and conspiracy rumors about the Jeffrey Epstein files, reports the New York Times. The confrontation reflected deepening fractures within Trump's coalition as the Epstein controversy spiraled beyond the administration's control, Haberman and Swan wrote before adding that, while Trump was doing damage control on Truth Social, Kirk was holding court at his rallies where the Epstein Files were becoming a primary focus.