CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Monday that President Donald Trump demonstrates some of the “best political instincts” he has ever seen from a politician, pointing to public opinion trends surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Enten noted that Google searches for Epstein have dropped 89% compared to three weeks ago, indicating that public interest in the case has sharply declined.
He said the numbers show Americans have largely moved on from focusing on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
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“I would just say this, Donald Trump has some of the best political instincts of any politician I’ve seen and on this particular issue, you see it full well and clear because he has been saying ‘you know what, [the Epstein files] is not an issue’ and it turns out a lot of the American public actually seem to agree with him,” Enten said.
According to Enten, Trump’s approval rating now stands at 44% as of Monday — seven points higher than it was in August 2017 during his first term.
A CNN/SSRS poll from July found that just one Republican voter identified Epstein as their top issue, while no Democrats or Independents named it as a political priority.
“[Trump’s approval] is still well within that margin of error here of 44% and you compare that to where he was in his first term at this point, he was 37%,” Enten said.
“So he’s seven points higher, very much in a different political universe now. It’s significantly higher in terms of his overall approval rating than he was at this point in his first term … So no, he hasn’t lost any of that base and when it comes to that center of the electorate, he’s basically holding on there and his overall approval rating, 44%, is pretty darn gosh good for him considering where he was at this point in term number one.”
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The renewed media focus on the Epstein files followed the administration’s July 6 conclusion that Epstein died by suicide and did not maintain a “client list.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February that she had a client list on her desk, but both the Department of Justice and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that she was referring to multiple documents related to several cases.
Trump has frequently criticized reporters and the public for fixating on the Epstein case.
On July 18, he filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal after the paper alleged he drew a picture of a naked woman and sent it to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.
The Daily Beast and Democratic strategist James Carville both retracted separate claims that First Lady Melania Trump had close ties to Epstein.
On July 29, Trump told reporters that he removed Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after learning that Epstein was hiring female spa workers at the club, including then-17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who has alleged she was recruited to perform sex acts for Epstein.