President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair appears to have spiraled out of control and now threatens to overshadow his substantial agenda victories, as a majority of the public believes there is evidence of a “cover-up.”
In new Rasmussen Reports polling shared with Secrets on Wednesday, 60% said they believe the Trump administration is trying to conceal evidence of a past Trump relationship with the convicted sexual predator and trafficker who committed suicide in 2019.
The bad news for the White House: 41% of Republicans said it is somewhat to very likely that “Trump administration officials are engaged in a cover-up to hide Donald Trump’s involvement with Epstein.”
There are many photos and reports of an old Trump-Epstein relationship, but the president has denied involvement in the sex affair and said he had cut ties with the financier before the scandal.
During the campaign, Trump and his surrogates promised to release the government’s case against Epstein but, in the end, offered little more than what was already known about it.
When the president’s MAGA influencers demanded more, he mocked them. Democratic leaders then seized on the case, and it is now dominating headlines and pushing aside others about the president’s achievements on trade, taxes, and international affairs.
It is also threatening to cost the GOP control of Congress as concerns about a cover-up grow.
Oh man, now Joe Rogan is questioning the official FBI take on Epstein.
Not going away.
— Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports (@honestpollster) July 29, 2025
Mark Mitchell, the pollster for nonpartisan Rasmussen, said the poor handling of the case is undermining the president’s approval rating and has cut short his initial surge in new popularity.
In an interview, he told Secrets, “It’s just not the same momentum that the first three or four months were because he’s completely lost whatever messaging and narrative control capability he had.”
Mitchell’s polling has Trump’s approval rating over 50%, but it has fallen back into the high 40s and could stall. And, he said, “it’s just not enough, I think, to maintain this mandate he had.”
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Worse, the president isn’t getting much help from Republicans in Congress. Mitchell said the GOP agenda has been lackluster, minus some big wins, such as on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) “stood on the steps of the Capitol Building and swore to voters he’s going to raise an America First banner over the halls of Congress, and promised to give America their Trump mandate,” Mitchell said.
But, he added, “people have woken up to the fact that this is the same Congress it’s always been.”
