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With the midterms fast approaching, progressive Democrats have adopted a new term for the alleged oligarchy. What used to be “The 1%” has become “The Epstein Class,” with some pretty ugly connotations.
Given the fact that Democrats everywhere, including Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Maryland Rep. Jaime Raskin, are using this loaded term of late, I started to wonder who exactly the members of the shadowy “Epstein Class” are. After all, if they must be thwarted, they surely must be identified.
I decided to ask one of the leading proponents of the term, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and the exchange we had represents the clearest, if still fairly opaque, definition of just what this Epstein Class is, if it exists at all.
Split showing Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. (Getty Images)
I asked Khanna for some examples of people who fit the bill. I offered options such as newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk, and a couple of mere billionaires: Liberal sugar daddy George Soros and failed California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer.
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I was not surprised when Khanna refused to name names. But he did tell me the following:
“What the Epstein files revealed is a group of powerful and wealthy men more concerned with their status and networks than decency and humanity. They were fine viewing young girls that Epstein was abusing as dispensable in order to maintain their standing with Epstein and his friends. The callowness, vanity, and vacuity of this governing elite has led to a lopsided and unfair economy.”
I politely noted that Khanna had not answered my question.
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“I’m sure you can understand how this does not seem terribly dissimilar from conspiracy theorists alleging there’s a secret cabal controlling everything and turning the frogs gay,” I said.
At that point, Khanna began to distance himself from the most nefarious implications of the term “Epstein Class.”
The Department of Justice released a trove of Epstein documents on Dec. 19 following President Trump’s signature on the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
“It is symbolic for the network Epstein collected of a group of powerful and rich men who put their own needs above civic virtue and accountability,” he told me. “I am not alleging a secret cabal. I reject such conspiracy.”
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I reminded Khanna that just a moment before he had referred to the Epstein Class as the “governing elite.” He brushed that off, saying, “Well, it’s an elite that has disproportionate political influence through their wealth because of Citizens United. More like a group of elite wielding disproportionate influence. Think of it like the economic royalists of our time.”
By the end of the exchange it was pretty clear that the term “Epstein Class” really has nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. It truly is a rehashing of the old Occupy-Wall-Street demonization of “The 1%,” but with the extra grotesque patina of child sexual abuse.
In a very brief exchange, Khanna’s description went from a group of Epstein-connected deviants wielding vast power to a vague, familiar (and wrong) argument about how the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision gives the wealthy too much power.
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Meanwhile, it is not just Democrats who have adopted this new left-wing phraseology, as both former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., have grabbed onto the myth of the Epstein Class with both hands.
On the emerging anti-Trump isolationist and populist right, politicians and podcasters have used the Epstein Class moniker to explain everything from America’s policies on Israel to the trans movement, but yet again, without the slightest bit of specific evidence.
Democratic candidate Tom Steyer attends a debate in the race for governor of California, hosted by the San Francisco Examiner and CBS, in San Francisco, California, on May 14, 2026 (Carlos Barria/REUTERS)
What voters need to know, and what I think Khanna made all too clear, is that the Epstein Class is literally just an attack on rich people, and not even all rich people, just the ones involved in politics that whoever is making the claim doesn’t like.
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There is real danger in this turn of phrase. Some 15 years ago, Occupy Wall Street may not have managed to take over the country with its 1% rhetoric. But it sure seems to be on the brink of seizing the reins of the Democratic Party.
For the rest of the country to hold firm against this socialist onslaught, we must reject the absurd idea of the Epstein Class, at least until Democrats, such as Khanna, can give us even one example of who exactly this class is composed of.
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