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By Jordan King
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Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped in two polls as he faces criticism for his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
The president lost six approval points in a Morning Consult poll and one point in a Napolitan News Service poll between surveys taken last month and this month.
Newsweek has contacted the White House, via email outside of working hours, for comment.
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The Context
Some Trump supporters feel let down after the president promised full transparency regarding the Epstein case, in particular over an alleged "client list" of people involved in the convicted pedophile's activities.
In June 2024, Donald Trump pledged to release the Epstein case files if elected president for a second term. Attorney General Pam Bondi fuelled speculation about a client list in February when she announced she would release records related to the case.
But last Monday, the Department of Justice and FBI published a joint statement and 11-hour prison video to support their conclusion that Epstein died by suicide in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges. They said he had "no incriminating 'client list'" and no further disclosure of information was warranted.
This has angered many, including prominent Trump supporters, who say the truth is being covered up and Epstein was murdered to prevent him speaking at his trial about other high-profile individuals involved with his activities.
What To Know
Morning Consult's latest global leader approval rating, based on data collected between July 4 and July 10, shows Trump's approval rating at 44 percent and his disapproval rating at 50 percent.
That's a six percentage point switch on the same poll taken a month earlier, between June 3 and June 9, which had Trump's approval rating at 50 percent while his disapproval rating was 44 percent.
Newsweek has contacted Morning Consult, via email, to ask about their polling sample size, methodology and margin of error.
Meanwhile, in a Napolitan News Service survey based on the questioning of 3,000 registered voters between June 30 and July 10, Trump's approval rating (50 percent) was three percentage points higher than his disapproval rating (47 percent).
The gap had been four percentage points when the same voters were questioned between June 18 and June 26, although the Napolitan survey's margin of error is +/- 1.8 percentage points.
In a cabinet meeting last week, when a reporter asked Bondi about Epstein, Trump interrupted her response to say: "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking—we have Texas. We have this. We have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep?"
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Amid calls from within the MAGA movement for Bondi to be sacked, Trump defended her in a Truth Social post on Saturday night, calling her performance "FANTASTIC" and dismissing the ongoing interest in Epstein as a waste of time.
"We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening," the president wrote. "Let's not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about."
Newsweek analysis shows that this post marked the first time Trump has been "ratioed" - when a social media post receives more replies than likes or shares, often signaling more disagreement or criticism than support - on his own platform.
What People Are Saying
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: "What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals?' They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it's Epstein, over and over again."
Elon Musk responded to a screengrab of Trump's Truth Social post on X saying: "Seriously. He said 'Epstein' half a dozen times while telling everyone to stop talking about Epstein. Just release the files as promised."
At a conservative conference this weekend, Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly told a crowd of thousands in Tampa, Florida: "She [Bondi] has never missed an opportunity to go on television and dangle sweet nothings that might be coming your way, try to lead you to believe that she's got it... Pam Bondi was either telling the truth then, or she's telling the truth now, but both cannot be true."
Robby Starbuck, a longtime Trump supporter, posted on X on Saturday: "President Trump rarely loses touch with what's happening among the base but he's missing the pulse on this one."
Retired Lt Gen Mike Flynn, who was US national security adviser in Trump's first administration, posted on X on Saturday: "If the administration doesn't address the massive number of unanswered questions about Epstein, especially the ABUSE OF CHILDREN BY ELITES (it is very clear that abuse occurred), then moving forward on so many other monumental challenges our nation is facing becomes much harder."
What Happens Next
Although Trump has double down on his support for his Attorney General, who appeared with him in the president's box at Sunday's FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey, friction over the Epstein scandal remains.
The administration now faces the challenge of reuniting a fractured base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
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