President Donald Trump is finding that the scandal surrounding his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein is refusing to fade.
This week, Jeffrey Epstein’s name came back to the fore with the release of a birthday note allegedly sent by Trump to the disgraced financier, published by The Wall Street Journal and circulated by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Trump’s authorship of the note – scrawled inside the sketched outline of a woman’s body – was immediately disputed by the White House. “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Trump himself told NBC News on Tuesday that the matter was a “dead issue.”
But for a growing number of Americans—including many in Trump’s own base—the issue is anything but over.
A Long History With Epstein
Trump’s association with Jeffrey Epstein dates back to the early 1990s, when both men moved in the same social and business circles in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City. Photographs from the period show them together at parties, and Trump even noted Epstein’s taste for younger women. In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
By the mid-2000s, however, Trump began publicly distancing himself from Epstein. He has claimed that he barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club, over a dispute involving Epstein’s behavior toward a young woman, though details of the incident have never been fully confirmed.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls. Epstein died a month later, ruled a suicide in federal custody. The spotlight was then on Epstein’s connections with powerful men—including Trump and Bill Clinton. While conspiracy theories swirled online about his death, Trump himself even retweeted a conspiracy theory connecting Clinton to Epstein’s death. A spokesperson for Clinton said Clinton had “not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade” and had no knowledge of his criminal behavior.
Meanwhile, photographs, quotes, and overlapping social networks surfaced showing a connection between Epstein and Trump—especially during the 2024 election, when Trump was pressed on whether he would declassify files related to Epstein’s case.
On the trail and in media appearances, Trump repeatedly suggested that Epstein’s connections to Democrats were suspicious. He also floated the idea of releasing the full set of Epstein-related case files if reelected, telling Fox & Friends in June 2024 that it would be “interesting to find out what happened there” regarding Epstein’s death, “because that was a weird situation, and the cameras didn’t happen to be working.” Later, on the Lex Fridman Podcast, he said he would have “no problem” making Epstein’s files public.
But after reclaiming the White House in January 2025, Trump reversed course. By mid-summer, he dismissed the renewed interest in Epstein as “boring” and spoke of a “hoax.” In July 2025, he ruled out the appointment of a special prosecutor to reexamine Epstein’s death or alleged client list, saying he would not recommend pursuing the matter further.
Trump’s decision not to release additional Epstein-related files prompted several right-wing commentators to voice frustration.
A Distraction From His Presidency
The renewed scrutiny is frustrating for a president who would rather the public focus on his push to overhaul immigration, or on his efforts to broker an end to the Ukraine war.
“People should really focus on how well the country is doing,” Trump said in July.
“I don’t really follow that too much,” he said, when asked about the Justice Department’s hunt for evidence about the Epstein case. “It’s sort of a witch-hunt.”
“The witch-hunt you should be talking about is that they caught President Obama absolutely cold,” he added, referencing false claims that Barack Obama tried to rig the 2016 election.
Obama’s office called the allegations “bizarre” and “ridiculous” and “a weak attempt at distraction.”
In an August poll published by The Conversation, three in four respondents had heard, read or seen “a lot” or “some” about the Epstein case.
Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, told Newsweek that the Epstein story persists because it is potentially damaging to Trump, and his refusal to release files—combined with pressure from both parties and media attention—keeps it alive.
“It’s got staying power because it’s salacious and because it has the potential to significantly harm President Trump, depending on what is in there to reveal,” Reeher said.
“The fact that the president no longer wants to have the material become public is generating suspicion. Add in that some of the most extreme Republicans in Congress, alongside many Democrats, are keeping the issue alive—and of course the media loves it.”
A Problem Inside His Own Coalition
Trump’s handling of the Epstein case has drawn scrutiny from both critics and supporters. Prominent MAGA figures, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, have spoken out, warning that if the Department of Justice doesn’t fully disclose information related to Epstein, Trump risks losing some of his MAGA base.
“Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole meal and will accept nothing else,” she wrote on social media in July.
Meanwhile, Republican Representative Thomas Massie has repeatedly defied party leadership in pushing for the full release of the Epstein files. He filed a discharge petition to force a House floor vote, arguing the public deserves to see what the files contain—”as much justice for the victims as we can.” He also criticized Trump’s dismissal of the files as a “hoax,” saying if it truly were one, even high-level Trump insiders (like the VP or FBI director) would have fallen for it.
The August poll by The Conversation showed that seven in 10 Americans believe Trump is handling the Epstein matter “not well.” Crucially, it found 47% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the controversy.
YouGov/Economist polling from September also found that about two-thirds (68 percent) of Americans think Trump knew some or a lot about the sex crimes committed by Epstein against underage girls before investigations into Epstein began. Only 8 percent thought he knew nothing about them.
Trump has consistently denied having any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes and there is no suggestion of criminal wrongdoing by Trump.
Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Northeastern University, told Newsweek that Trump may have trapped himself. “Trump dug his own grave with the Epstein scandal when he reversed course about releasing the case files after winning the election,” he said. “Trump fanned the flames of conspiracy with his base during the campaign, and now these voters expect him to deliver. Failure to do so raises concerns about a cover-up and reminds Trump supporters that the president only exploited this issue to win votes.”
Panagopoulos added that “mixed signals and claims about any personal involvement with Epstein, including his denials about the now-infamous and cryptic Trump letter in Epstein’s 50th ‘birthday book,’ do not seem to be ringing true even among die-hard MAGA voters. The scandal is not fading in part because it seems to be the one instance that threatens to topple Trump support in the MAGA base.”
While Trump himself does not face another election, the controversy could undermine his image as a leader who promised to “drain the swamp” and expose hidden truths. It may also influence the 2026 midterms and pose challenges for potential Republican successors such as Senators Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, who could be pressed to take a position on the issue.
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