Early signs bode ill for Trump after his base soundly rejected his attempt to smooth over the Epstein affair this weekend.
Trump in recent days has faced a revolt from his base over his Justice Department’s July 7 memo that Jeffrey Epstein had not kept a “client list” and that there had been no foul play in the disgraced financier and sex trafficker’s death. Top officials in the Trump administration had previously elevated Epstein-related conspiracy theories, promising full transparency on the matter and to release the supposed client list.
Trump on Saturday took to Truth Social to dispel MAGA outrage—which includes calls to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi—by insisting that the Epstein files are “Radical Left inspired Documents” created by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden, and that the administration ought “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
The president’s message evidently fell flat among large swaths of his supporters. Major MAGA media figures have registered their dissatisfaction with the statement, and the Truth Social post was Trump’s first ever post on his platform to receive more replies than likes—indicating that users gave Trump an earful over it.
A Morning Consult poll conducted from July 4 to July 10—a period during which the Epstein news broke and began to resonate (not to mention other developments, such as the passage of Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill)—seems to indicate a backlash against Trump. The polling firm, which collects data on global leaders’ approval ratings, has Trump at 44 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval between July 4 and July 10. This represents a six-point dip from a month earlier.
This reversal, of course, can only tell us so much, as the poll records favorability and unfavorability generally, rather than issue-specific data. But since it was conducted, Trump further stirred the pot with his Saturday plea on Truth Social. While we’ll have to wait for clearer quantifications of the backlash against Trump for the Epstein fiasco, MAGA rancor over the matter seems more clamorous than ever, with no sign of quieting down any time soon.
The post Trump Approval Rating Drops as MAGA Epstein Backlash Grows appeared first on New Republic.
