Trump’s job approval is down, but not due to the Epstein files. The president gets low marks for his handling of the scandal. But polls suggest other issues are driving the popularity dip.
The furor over Donald Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, and the possibility of future revelations about the 47th president’s relationship with the late sex offender, is showing no signs of abating more than a week after Trump tried to dismiss it all as a “Democrat hoax.” And sporadic polling during the sudden flare-up of this issue indicates the public isn’t happy about it at all — and that includes Republicans.
But the impact on Trump’s popularity is unclear. His net job-approval ratings have been more or less sliding since a June 7 peak of minus-3.5 percent (according to the averages at Silver Bulletin) and currently stand at minus-9.5 percent. Some of this decline occurred after the explosion of the Epstein files in the news on July 7, when the DOJ and FBI announced there was nothing to investigate. But it’s the salience of the Epstein files issue that is in question, as Silver Bulletin noted:
Why the steep decline in Trump’s approval rating over the past two weeks? One potential explanation is the Epstein files. Americans (even Republicans) aren’t happy with how Trump is handling them. But the issue isn’t necessarily salient. Another more boring possibility is that Americans simply don’t like Trump’s policies.
Americans have had strong and divided opinions about Donald Trump for a decade, and he has been unpopular more than he’s been popular over the years. Is this controversy, perhaps because it is of particular interest to elements of Trump’s MAGA base, fundamentally changing perceptions of him? That hypothesis bears a heavy burden of truth given the many times Trump has said or done something thought to have doomed his political career, dating back at least to his mockery of John McCain’s POW heroism during a July 2015 campaign appearance.
