Americans Aren’t Buying Trump’s Epstein Excuses
New polling shows nearly half the country believes he was involved in Epstein's crimes
As Trump desperately tries to throw Americans off his trail, newly released polling from Canadian pollster Leger finds many Americans are not buying his story about not being involved with infamous sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Now, as the federal government seems to be playing footsie with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s arguably worse counterpart in the sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, Americans are more focused than ever on the issue.
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The poll found that 84% of Americans have heard about the Epstein case, while only 12% say they have not. As such, many Americans are keyed into the issue, which explains why it has been so hard for Trump to slip away from the topic while in front of the press.
The survey went on to ask Americans whether they believe Trump was directly involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking activities, something that picked up steam after Trump, unprompted, said that Epstein was poaching girls who worked at his spa from him, including Virginia Giuffre, someone who was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell.
The poll found 45% of Americans believe Trump was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking activities, including 15% of Republicans and 45% of Independents. On the flip side, only 29% say they do not believe Trump was involved, with an unexpectedly small share of Republicans agreeing at 63%.
That much tracks, as an overwhelming majority of Americans want transparency on this case. When asked, 77% of respondents said the US government should release all information and documents related to the sex trafficking allegations involving Epstein, which included support from 73% of Republicans.
Only 7% of respondents said the administration should release only some of the information, while an even smaller share (4%) said the government should keep all information related to Epstein confidential.
Americans already believe the Trump administration is lying to them about this issue, with many saying the administration is hiding important information about the case from the public. A YouGov poll at the end of July found 63% agreeing the government is hiding information from the public, while another 22% said they were neutral on the issue.
In that same YouGov survey, respondents were asked who they believe is to blame for the hiding of information about the Epstein case, and an overwhelming majority of Americans put the blame at the feet of the president, with 81% saying he is to blame for hiding the information.
Another 59% of respondents said Pam Bondi is to blame for hiding information, especially after she said in February that the Epstein files were on her desk ready to be reviewed, and promised to release them only days later.
Kash Patel is blamed by 49% of Americans, while Mike Johnson, who called an expedited summer recess to avoid having votes on Epstein brought up in the House, was blamed by 47% of Americans.
Amazingly, 16% of respondents say Democrats also share the blame for hiding information about the Epstein case, so make of that as you will.
However, there is one big question mark hanging over everyone’s head electorally: Will Republicans flip on Trump and his party if he is implicated in the Epstein files?
It should come as no surprise that the majority of Republicans say it would not impact their support for Trump (47%), or that they are unsure or prefer not to say how it would impact their support (26%).
Only 27% of Republican respondents say they would be likely to turn on Trump and be more likely to vote for another party should the president be implicated in Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes.
This scandal has been going on for a month now, with little evidence to suggest Trump is going to be able to weasel his way out of it any time soon, and that much suggests a rare failing for the Trump media machine.