Skip to main content

Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling Epstein files

Chris Brennan   Paste BN

It’s not every day that an American president derides his own supporters as “weaklings” for holding him accountable on a campaign promise and then brands his political allies in Congress as “stupid” for backing those supporters.

But that’s just another day in the “Epstein files” scandal for Donald Trump, who is failing to deflate a conspiracy theory he previously puffed up for political gain.

Trump keeps an eye on polling. And the polling shows Americans don’t like his attempts to move past talk of Jeffrey Epstein, a former cruising buddy and convicted pedophile who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges filed during Trump’s first term. 

A July 16 Quinnipiac University national poll found that 63% of voters disapprove of the Trump administration announcing last week that it would release no new files about Epstein, despite teasing for months the release of a “client list” that conspiracy theorists believed included names of wealthy and powerful people blackmailed by Epstein. Just 17% approved, while 20% offered no opinion.

Splitting out Republican voters, 40% approved of Trump’s handling of Epstein, while 36% disapproved and 24% offered no opinion.

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.

That follows an Economist/YouGov national poll last week that found 79% of Americans said the Trump administration should release all its files on Epstein, including 75% of Republicans surveyed. That poll found that 67% of Americans think the Trump administration is “covering up” the Epstein files, including 50% of Republicans.

CNN national polling released July 15 found dissatisfaction with how much Epstein information has been shared so far – 56% of Democrats, 52% of independents, and 40% of Republicans. Overall, just 3% of Americans in this survey are satisfied with the information released. And that only ticks up to 4% when just Republicans are counted.

At this point, Trump’s best hope of moving past the Epstein scandal may be that so many Republicans aren’t paying that much attention. 

Quinnipiac found that 36% of those surveyed were not following the Epstein news “too closely,” and that ticked up to 43% among Republicans. And CNN found that 38% of Republicans said the Epstein case doesn’t matter to them.

But Trump, being Trump, can’t stop making news about Epstein. He issued orders last weekend on social media for his followers to stop talking about Epstein. That didn’t work. So then he insisted on July 15 that the Epstein files were somehow both “boring” and “sordid.”

For a president known for his salesman-like approach to politics, this just isn’t selling, especially since he can’t stop raging about it.

Here's what else we're writing about:

Facebook Twitter Email