CNN's Harry Enten highlighted new polling data that suggested President Donald Trump's handling of one key issue could cut into his overall approval rating.
The president has been unable to turn the page on his longtime association with Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender, and the issue exploded into view once again as the House returned to session and the Oversight Committee dumped thousands of emails obtained from the Epstein estate – many of which mention Trump by name and suggest their relationship continued into his first term in office.
"You know, Donald Trump is underwater on basically every singleissue he ran on in 2024," Enten said. "But the Epstein files, the Epstein caseare especially dreadful for him.What are we talking about here?Let's take a look at Trump'sapproval rating on the issues.Look, they're all in red, they're all in the negativeterritory. But on immigration,you know, he's five pointsunderwater, foreign policy, eightpoints. Trade and tariffs, he's17 points [underwater], the economy, 18points."
"But look at the Epsteincase – he is 39 points belowwater on the Epstein case,that approval is 39 points inthe negative," Enten added. "My goodnessgracious. What Donald Trump hasbeen selling on the Epsteinfiles, the Epstein case, the American people, simply put,have not been buying at all."
A procedural effort to force the House to vote on a measure to force the Justice Department to turn over files on Epstein's sex trafficking network advanced to its next stage, but even Republicans are deeply unsatisfied with Trump's refusal to authorize their release.
"Donald Trump has been trying to makesome sort of case saying that,you know, the folks don'tnecessarily care about it, buttake a look here," Enten said. "Approve of the Trump admin on the Epstein case in early July, right, when youhad the DOJ droppings,right, it was 17 percent. Look at wherewe were by late September, thelatest poll I can find, it's 20 percent.You know, we often talk about Donald Trump having this floor,right, about about 40 percent on thisparticular issue. He is lessthan half the level of thesupposed floor. There'sjust nobody, there is justnobody in the electorate who isbuying this. They do not likethe way that the Trumpadministration has been handlingthis case one iota."
"This is overall, right, andyou see 17 percent, you see 20 percent, thatis way below the 40 percent floor that Donald Trump supposedly has," Enten added. "Howdoes that possibly happen? It'sbecause of Republicans, becauselook at this number, okay.Republicans who have approve of Trump's job as president, 87 percent.That is basically in line withthe long term average, 85 [percent], 90 [percent],95 percent. But look at the Trumpadmin's job on the Epstein case.Just 45 percent of Republicans, lessthan half of Republicans areeven buying what theadministration is selling."
Enten guessed that it's only a matter of time that the issue might bleed into Trump's overall approval rating.
"Look,we're not necessarily surewhether or not this case hasmoved the ball on Trump'soverall approval rating yet, butI can tell you that the morethat this case is in the news,the worse it is for Donald Trump, because, simply put, itis his worst issue by far," he said.