By TheCriticalMind | 17 July 2025
Daily Kos
For 10 years, the Teflon Don Trump has shrugged off scandal, fraud, felonies, cons, grift, sexual assault, and poor grammar. He has the luck of a white-garbed Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) during the palace pie fight in “The Great Race.” He remains impeccable, even as all around him are food-crusted.
But even as Curtis couldn’t avoid the pie in the face forever, the Democrats have long hoped that some misdeed would cripple Trump. Nothing did — until now — maybe. The 2024 losers have latched onto Trump’s self-inflicted Epstein scandal brouhaha and now hope this affair might sever the ties that bind the MAGA cult to its godhead. And clear the ground for a Democrat resurgence in the 2026 midterms, the 2028 general, and beyond.
Will it? Probably not — but there is cause for hope and enthusiasm.
The media (except Fox News) has made much of the podcast-bros and MAGA purists rattling Trump’s cage and demanding to know what’s up. The list of conservative luminaries caterwauling about a cover-up is long — Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Tom Fitton, Megyn Kelly, Michael Flynn, Newsmax, Speaker Mike Johnson, Benny Johnson, Sen. Josh Hawley have all said there is something questionable about the administration’s stonewalling.
Trump can’t get MAGA to stop obsessing over Epstein, it’s been the biggest test yet for the media world he helped create
W/@HenryJGomez https://t.co/LLygV1fGDl
— Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) July 16, 2025
This mess is entirely self-created. Trump 2.0 exists in part because Trump was going to name Epstein’s names. His AG, Pam Bondi, announced she had the list on her desk. The base waited tumescent. But their expectations were crushed. Pam’s DOJ told the faithful to move on — that there was nothing to see. This declaration soon foundered. Bondi’s boss contradicted her.
Trump admitted there was an Epstein file when he said it was a despicable smear authored by every prominent Democrat working in cahoots. However, his attempt to categorize the Epstein file as another dirty Democratic trick proved inane. The pundits wondered at the logic of Trump’s assertion. They asked why, if the Democrats had faked this presumably damning document, they hadn’t released it.
All of this raises the question: Will the Epstein cover-up be the fatal blow the Left hopes it will be? On that score, there is good and bad news for the Democrats. The bad news is that the Epstein affair, in and of itself, will not erode Trump’s political power. For one, he’s not running for anything. And secondly, he retains an iron grip over the Republican Congress.
The good news is that weakening Republican support for Trump will become an issue for GOP congressional incumbents and candidates in the midterms. Even polls taken before the Epstein affair show weakness in his approval ratings among his 2024 voters.
Typically, poor polls conducted more than a year before an election reflect frustration rather than voting intention. However, a President only six months into his term would expect to be still enjoying his honeymoon.
I’m gonna post this every day so nobody forgets exactly who Pedophile Trump is and why the Epstein files have suddenly disappeared. pic.twitter.com/LKQPXbsXTi
— Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) July 21, 2025
The news gets worse for Trump. A YouGov poll reveals that Trump is underwater with the general public on almost every issue. He has positive approval for only 2 of 52 issues the poll asked about
- National security: +4
- Border security: +1
Considering that he made security and immigration key elements of his 2024 platform, those are crap numbers — especially when you add in his -9% approval on Immigration.
On economic issues, he receives no passing grade. Here are the biggies:
- Jobs and the economy: -14%
- Taxes: -20%
- Government spending: -24%
- National debt: -25%
- Tariffs and trade -26%
- Health care costs: -29%
- Inflation/prices: -32%
It is hard to see how his economic numbers will improve. As TACO continues to push back the deadline for its most punitive tariffs, the consumer has yet to witness the inflation generated by these taxes on foreign goods. And even the most artful spinner can not make a silk purse out of the pig’s ear that is his deficit-exploding Big Beautiful Bill.
On social issues, civil rights, foreign relations, and everything else, he is double digits underwater. Epstein will not be a fatal blow to Trump, but it will magnify his very real failures. And strip the Republicans of critical voters next year and beyond.
‘No, she’s not here for you’: Trump-Epstein office encounter resurfaces in NYT bombshell report
Epstein’s ex-girlfriend describes alleged incident with Trump
Poll: Trump’s approval rating drops to 42%
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