

In a way, it’s extremely surprising. I agree that it seems wild for this to be what takes down the house of cards.
On the other hand, trying to think of it through the lens of someone already living within the conspiracism bubble, I do think this issue is notably different. Bragging about being a rapist is just how they talk, because they explicitly endorse sexism. That’s just “boys being boys” and whatnot. Unity is necessary to impose a collective will, so some level of bad behavior is excusable so long as you’re towing the party line. But they spent far too long mysticizing and building up the epstein files and importantly it reflected a value that they collectively held - to protect the children. For something which was so central to their conspiracist theorems (just like the deep state, except in this case it was a plausibly real thing) to be discarded so wantonly like this without a clear and plausible explanation which maintains their theories (even Alex Jones couldn’t resolve his cognitive dissonance on this entirely… is Trump actually a deep state actor?!)? Well that is a difficult pill to swallow.
Maybe someone will be creative enough to weave a story which both explains and allows them to continue to press on with their core beliefs of a global elite running the world and them fighting back against it but somehow Trump not being part of said cabal and instead acting on their behalf. If that happens, I’m sure it’ll spread like wildfire among them because it’ll help them suspend their disbelief. One can simply hope they implode upon themselves because right now things are looking exceptionally bleak for the US not nose-diving directly into fascism and being at the center of WW3 and a Nazi 2.0 movement
I think it’s probably much more mundane; they simply see an opening so they’re going to throw him under the bus so they can be the next king.