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By Mandy Taheri
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The majority of likely voters believe President Donald Trump launched the war on Iran at least in part to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files, according to a new poll.
Why It Matters
Epstein was a disgraced financier who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges. Earlier this year, the DOJ published more than 3 million pages of material under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by Trump in November. The tranche of documents includes 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, making the total production nearly 3.5 million pages released, in compliance with the act.
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The files have fueled speculation and criticism over the Trump administration’s handling of their release, including questions about timing, redactions and what information has been disclosed.
Public sentiment on the Iran war could play a large role in how Congress acts and how the White House moves forward as the U.S. approaches crucial midterm elections in November.
What To Know
A survey of 1,272 likely voters conducted from March 6 to March 8 found 52 percent of participants believe that Trump was “at least partly motivated to take military action against Iran in order to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.” Forty percent say the Epstein files had no motivation for the president’s military action against Iran, and 8 percent were unsure.
The majority of Democrats and independents, 81 percent and 52 percent, respectively, said the Epstein files at least partly motivated the action. Among Republicans, 26 percent said the same, while 64 percent said they did not believe the files were a factor.
The poll was conducted by Data for Progress, and paid for by Drop Site News and Zeteo.
Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, and subsequent U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in Iran have killed more than 1,300 people, according to Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
About 140 U.S. service members have been wounded so far in the war with Iran, the Pentagon said Tuesday, offering the most detailed public accounting yet of American casualties from weeks of Iranian missile, rocket and drone attacks across the Middle East. At least seven U.S. service members have been killed so far in the war, according to the Pentagon
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What People Are Saying
Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said in a March 1 X post: "PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will."
Maine Democrat Graham Platner told a crowd earlier in March: “This war is also being pushed because Donald Trump is in the Epstein files, and other people in the White House, and other people connected with the Epstein class. They are terrified that we have noticed what they are doing.”
Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in an X post on February 28: "For years we demanded to release the Epstein files, demanding transparency and justice for thousands of victims, women and children, by the richest most powerful men in the world and we had to fight Trump himself to do it, even after we all campaigned on it. And not a single person has been arrested and likely won’t be, no accountability, no justice. Instead, we get a war with Iran on behalf of Israel that will succeed in regime in Iran."
What Happens Next
Trump said Wednesday that the war with Iran is nearing its conclusion, insisting he alone will decide when the conflict stops and arguing that U.S. forces have already exhausted most viable targets.
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